A STAR WARS story: Faith In The Force
by I heart Lyoko
Summary: A young Jedi Knight survived against Lord Vader's invasion of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. The Jedi, Rafik Thul, watched his master be murdered and witnessed the destruction of the entire Jedi Order. He was forced to go into hiding as he tried to survive with his friends and allies and fight against the Galactic Empire. This is their story:
1. Chapter 1, Operation: KNIGHTFALL

**(I DO NOT own Star Wars or any of its characters/brands/names, (as much as it pains me to say ;_;), but I own all OCs unless I state otherwise. All this being said, enjoy the story, and please remember to review. ^^)**

* * *

 _ **A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...**_

* * *

 ** _STAR WARS_**

 ** _"FAITH IN THE FORCE"  
_**

 ** _The Jedi Order has been destroyed!  
Due to the plans of the sinister Sith Lord  
Darth Sidious, the Jedi Knights are all but extinguished  
across the entire Galaxy._**

 _ **Deep in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, the surviving Jedi  
are being hunted down by the Clone 501st Legion, led by none  
other than the recently-anointed DARTH VADER.  
Many of the Jedi Knights have fought bravely,  
but most of the Jedi have perished thus far.  
**_

 _ **Meanwhile, in other places across the Galaxy, the Jedi commanders  
of the Republic armies is dealt the same fate as the Jedi  
on Coruscant, with very few having survived the surprise onslaught  
of their own soldiers against them.  
**_

 _ **But, even in the middle of those terrible events, the Jedi Knights  
are continuing their fight against the darkness on Coruscant,  
being sure that this is their last stand...**_

* * *

 ** _Chapter One: "Operation: KNIGHTFALL"_**

* * *

Fire and smoke filled the skies around the Jedi Temple on the planet Coruscant. A massive invasion of the temple was in effect as the Clone soldiers of the 501st Legion killed any Jedi they found with heavy losses on both sides. Jedi Knights fought Clones, Jedi Masters fought Clones, even many of the young Jedi Padawans fought the Clones as well... it was a bloodbath for everyone involved.

"Operation: KNIGHTFALL" was succeeding more and more by the hour; by the minute even. The Clones were fulfilling their objectives to kill whatever Jedi they could find and secure everything they could inside of the Jedi archives. Dozens of Jedi fell at a time, some of them taking dozens of Clones with their blades before they succumbed to their blasters... The Clone troopers managed to secure the majority of the Jedi Archives before the Jedi could purge their knowledge, but there was still much left behind by the Jedi... It was mostly a failure, as the Clones had almost every bit of Jedi knowledge they needed to acquire.

The Jedi Knights were just trying to survive, they were trying to keep the Jedi Order alive... but it was all for nothing. Too many Jedi have fallen, and both sides knew it would all be over by the next morning... maybe even within an hour or two... A former Jedi Knight, Anakin Skywalker, who was now known as " _Darth Vader_ ", was there, fighting alongside the Clones. He was the one who led Operation: KNIGHTFALL. He was the one killing Jedi like it was nothing. He was the _Sith Lord_ decimating the Jedi Order for his master...

Darth Vader had a deep frown on his face as he walked out of the room where most of the Jedi younglings were hiding. He deactivated his Lightsaber for the time being, having just used it to slaughter the many defenseless children inside... He didn't want to, but the Jedi needed to pay for everything they done, and killing the younglings had fully immersed himself into the Dark Side. He had nightmares that his wife Padme would die... He needed the full power of the Dark Side to keep her alive...

A Clone commander suddenly ran up to him and got his attention, quickly saluting and then gesturing to a nearby fight between a massive amount of Clones and Jedi.

"My Lord, we're winning the battle! Jedi positions are being overrun, but we need immediate support in the northern end of the Temple!" the Clone commander said.

"Good." Lord Vader replied. "Send in the gunships and land reinforcements on the outer platforms, then send the gunships to strafe the upper level courtyards. Destroy any Jedi in your way." he ordered.

The Clone nodded in confirmation and he proceeded to run down a nearby hallway, helping nearby Clone troopers to engage a pack of Jedi that was cornered in the archives. Lord Vader reactivated his Lightsaber once he went into a large inner courtyard, eyeing one Jedi Knight that was back to back with his Jedi Master. Their blue and green blades reflected the blaster fire of Clones and took out a very large number of them...

Vader slowly started to walk into the courtyard, frowning with anger and hate as he saw his next two victims... Even though he was furious at the Jedi, Vader couldn't help but feel impressed with how the two Jedi were holding their own against dozens of highly-trained elite Clone soldiers...

He knew he would have to deal with them himself.

* * *

Rafik Thul didn't know what to do. He and his Master, Dalo Fal-Cona, were both cornered in the center of a courtyard by Clones from the 501st Legion, and several other Jedi were scattered all over the area. They tried to get to the younglings so they could try and help them escape the Jedi Temple... but they sensed that Vader got to them first. The poor children didn't have a chance against him...

A Clone trooper charged at the pair of Jedi, but was quickly cut down by Dalo's blade. Rafik used the force to grab the fallen Clone's blaster, firing at other Clones while deflecting their own laser fire. A stray laser grazed Rafik on his right shoulder, causing him to cringe as he kept fighting the Clone soldiers. As Rafik fired his blaster and deflected laser blasts with his Lightsaber, he couldn't help but notice that he and Master Dalo were completely surrounded by the 501st Legion.

"Master, we're surrounded!" Rafik exclaimed.

"Keep calm, my young apprentice!" Dalo replied, calmly. "We shall find a way out of this!" he added.

Rafik didn't know if Master Dalo was right. The odds were against them, and all they had was the Force, their skill and their wits to protect them. There were literally _thousands_ of Clones that were attacking the Jedi Temple as they defended themselves. It seemed as though all of the Galactic Republic was against them now... maybe even the rest of the Galaxy as well... He assumed they were in a last stand and were going to die. But they would die for the Force... Rafik wouldn't have it any other way.

Master Dalo used the Force to pull a large and heavy column down onto a group of Clones, proceeding to use the Force to grab a nearby Lightsaber from a fallen Jedi Knight. Using the green and blue bladed Lightsabers in his hands, Dalo charged at a nearby group of Clones and easily took them down. Dalo then saw multiple Clones attacking from a nearby gunship, managing to kill a few of the last Jedi Knights in the courtyard. The gunships laser fire separated Rafik and Dalo as they both ran for cover. They ended up on the opposite sides of the room, the Clones attacks intensifying now that their prey was separated...

As Rafik fired his blaster and used his lightsaber against the Clones, he heard his Master's voice as if he was still right next to him... It still sounded completely calm, as if he was at peace.

" _May the Force be with you, Rafik..._ " he heard Master Dalo say.

The young Jedi Knight looked at the position that his Master was at... and he felt nothing short of horror at what he saw was happening... His eyes widened as he saw that none other than Lord Vader himself was approaching Dalo, raising his Lightsaber against the old Jedi Master. Dalo was easy for him, way too easy even for the old master's talents. Vader just simply sliced the Master's second Lightsaber in half, using the Force to push him to a nearby column and causing him to drop the original Lightsaber he had. Vader then stabbed Dalo in the chest, right through the heart and causing the tip of his blade to poke out through the other side of the column.

Rafik was watching his master die...

"NO!" Rafik screamed.

Master Dalo's eyes were widened by the shock and force of the Lightsaber piercing his heart, but his eyes quickly shut themselves after a few seconds, signalling that he was dead... Vader grabbed the corpse of Dalo, frowning as he pushed it down to the lower level of the courtyard, making it land just a few meters away from Rafik. The shocked apprentice looked up at Vader, seeing that the Sith Lord was frowning with anger at him, pointing the tip of his lightsaber towards Rafic, challenging him.

"Your master can't save you _now_..." Vader taunted.

Rafik couldn't help it. His fear was intense, but then his rage was beginning to build up... Everything Dalo taught him, _everything_ the Jedi Order was about was not to give in to hate, revenge or anger. They were the paths to the Dark Side of the Force... Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering... He couldn't hold back as he furiously tossed his blaster and using the Force to pull into his hand the functioning Lightsaber that Dalo had from the floor.

Vader frowned as Rafik Force-jumped up to where he was, the two blue blades in his hands shining bright as he approached him. They both then engaged in a heated Lightsaber duel, both not losing concentration as they used their hate and anger to attack each other. A few Clone troopers aimed their blasters at Rafik, but Vader pushed the Jedi across the room with the Force and threateningly pointed his Lightsaber at the Clones.

"He's mine!" Vader warned.

The Clones immediately ran off to find different Jedi to fight. None of them wanted or even dared to get in Lord Vader's way... Rafik made himself stand up and get in a defensive stance with his Lightsabers, frowning at Vader as he watched him approach.

"You betrayed us, Skywalker! Why?!" Rafik demanded to know.

"You know why, traitor! The Jedi betrayed the Republic and tried to kill the Chancellor! And all for more power?! _You_ have to pay for what you've done!" Vader retorted, the Dark Side clouding his mind as it distorted the truth.

"The Dark Side is against us _all,_ Skywalker!" Rafik retorted.

As several more squads of the 501st Legion arrived and overran the last of the Jedi in the courtyard, Vader and Rafik kept dueling. Their duel brought them outside onto a landing pad, much to the surprise of the crew and soldiers of a gunship that was landed there. After several minutes of their dueling, Vader managed to kick Rafik in the head, using the momentum to quickly slice his Lightsaber in half and use the Force to toss the other one off the landing pad...

Rafik felt dazed as he stumbled back, the remains of the first Lightsaber falling off of the pad and landing thousands of feet below to the streets with the other still-functioning one... Vader approached Rafik, pushing him to the ledge and causing him to fall over the side. Rafik managed to grab the ledge, however, but he was now entirely left to the mercy of Darth Vader.

"Anakin, please! Listen to me!" Rafik exclaimed as he looked up at his former comrade. He didn't care if he was killed by him, but he just wanted to try to get him back to the Light... He sensed there was still good in Darth Vader, and he knew that somewhere deep down within him... Anakin Skywalker still lived.

"Please! Just come back to the Light! The Jedi are your _family,_ Anakin! Listen to me!" Rafik pleaded.

Vader felt no sympathy, no empathy, and no regret. His fate was decided. He was with the Dark Side now... His wife would not die thanks to the powers of the Sith. The Sith would rule the galaxy, true... But he was content to know Palpatine would help save his wife from certain death...

"You tried to overthrow the Republic. The Jedi betrayed us all. All of the Jedi need to be punished for what they tried to do to the Republic and to the Chancellor, and I will see to that!" Vader frowned.

As Rafik felt himself beginning to lose his grip, he watched as Vader approached the side of the landing pad. Vader pressed his boot down against Rafik's fingers and worked to make him release himself, which was successful. Rafik screamed as he fell from the landing pad, the last he saw of Vader was the Dark Lord's frown before he walked away... Vader knew that he might probably survive, but he wanted to hunt him down... And, as a result of the fall, Rafik was sure this was the end.

Suddenly, after falling hundreds of feet, an airspeeder vehicle went under where he was falling, inadvertently catching Rafik and saving him from death. Rafik, wide eyed as he realized he was now sitting in the backseat of an airspeeder, quickly sat up and looked around.

"What?" Rafik asked himself, shocked at how he survived.

The driver of the airspeeder instantly turned her head and looked in the back of her vehicle. She went wide eyed with surprise as she saw her new unexpected passenger in the back of her vehicle.

"What?!" the woman, an orange-skinned Twi'lek, asked.

"What?!" Rafik retorted, shocked at the suddenness of landing in a vehicle.

"...WHAT?!" the woman repeated, now fully realizing the situation of a stranger landing in her airspeeder.

The woman reached for her glove box and grabbed a small blaster that was inside of it. She aimed it at Rafik, but he managed to grab it and toss it out of the airspeeder before she could fire it, also pinning her arm to the arm rest. The two of them kept fighting for control of the airspeeder, causing it to go out of control as it gained and lost altitude on the air streets of Coruscant.

"Let go!" the woman exclaimed.

" _You_ let go!" Rafik retorted.

"Well, _you're_ the one who fell into my airspeeder!" the woman retorted.

"Not on purpose!" Rafik retorted back.

"You still fell in it!" the woman retorted again.

Rafik and the woman kept struggling for control of the airspeeder, making it go through oncoming traffic for a while and barely dodging other airspeeders before it took a steep dive. The woman gasped though, when she saw Republic dropships chasing them from afar... The gunners on the dropships started firing on them as the woman and Rafik quickly took cover behind the front seats.

"What in the name of-?! What did you do?! Are you a criminal?!" the woman demanded to know.

"What? NO! I'm not a criminal! I'm a JEDI!" Rafik explained.

"You're a JEDI?!" the woman asked, in a mixture of disbelief and confusion. In any event, as they fought over the steering wheel, the airspeeder finally crash landed on one of the streets of the city. The Clones in the dropships kept firing at them as they climbed out of the airspeeder, but Rafik grabbed the woman's arm and started to hurriedly lead her away from the ship.

The woman had no idea what was happening. She was pulled through the lower streets of Coruscant as the Clones in the dropship kept firing their weapons at the fleeing persons. The alarms sounded throughout the 501st Legion's communication channels, all announcing that a Jedi managed to escape the Temple, and soon even more Clone troopers arrived to deal with the threat. Rafik and the woman ran, and they ran and ran and ran... but no matter how fast they ran, the Clones seemed to be right on their tail.

But Rafik finally saw a way out of this mess... but it was risky. It was a squadron of Clone troopers blocking the way, and also a few speeder bikes were parked as a blockade. So, he Force-pushed the woman out into an alley for safety, much to her shock and confusion. But Rafik didn't get her into the alleyway like he intended... the woman landed right onto a Clone commander, sending both of them tumbling onto the ground. She and the commander were both momentarily stunned and confused by the sudden event.

But, nearly instantaneously, they both realized the situation. The Clone commander tried to restrain her, but she managed to grab the blaster he had in his right hand. There was a short struggle over it, but the woman managed to elbow him in the helmet, stunning him long enough to take the blaster and to shoot him in the chest with it, seeing the Clone's body collapse a short distance away.

She couldn't believe what she just did. She killed a man... As she stood in shock, Rafik managed to fight several of the Clones with the Force, pushing several of them into a nearby store and the rest high up into the sky, never to be seen again by them.

Rafik used the Force to lift up one of the speeder bikes from its position, getting it up into the air as the gunner in the gunship set his sights on him... but it was too late. Rafik already threw the speeder bike towards the gunship and it hit it directly in the pilot's canopy, sending the gunship down to the ground where it exploded in a fiery inferno...

Rafik grabbed the woman's hand and started running. He didn't know where, he didn't know how long he would have to, but he did what he knew he had to do. Run from the Clones or die by their hand.


	2. Chapter 2, Rise of the Empire

****_Chapter Two: "Rise of the Empire"_****

* * *

Rafik and the woman ran as fast as they could, trying to get away from the scene. They ran for miles and miles, going up and down several of the underlevels of Coruscant. It had already been many hours since the fall of the Jedi Temple, many hours since Rafik was almost killed by Lord Vader. Truth be told, they ran until the next morning to try and keep hidden from the Clones. They were tired and exhausted, but now all that mattered was that he and this woman were still alive.

They soon ran into an alleyway and hid in the shadows, stopping only to reclaim their breath and their bearings. But the woman wasn't happy. She was _angry_. Why did this Jedi show up and put her in a situation like this? Why was he even being chased by them? Was she a fugitive now? Where could she even go?! There was so many questions she needed answers to...

"Y- You got me in this situation! Why were those soldiers after you?! What in the hell did you do to cause this?!" the woman demanded to know.

"They attacked the Jedi Temple..." Rafik replied. "I must admit that I don't know why. They were always loyal until today..." he sighed.

The woman had an expression of surprise on her face. Was he lying or telling the truth? Were the Clones the good guys in this situation, or the Jedi? She was sure all of Coruscant was probably just as confused as she was, and that the attack on the Jedi Temple was probably all over the Galactic News Service by now.

"I don't know if I can believe you... but I guess since we're both on the run, I'll have to figure something out for myself... By the Goddess, I may have to run for the rest of my life because of YOU. I can't go and explain myself, they saw me with you! They'll shoot us on sight after seeing how many you killed!" the woman frowned.

Rafik realized the full extent of his actions, even if they were unintentional... This woman was now going to have to hide and run, probably forever. The Republic would chase after him as well, for sure. Whoever caused this wouldn't rest until every Jedi Knight was dead...

"...I'm sorry. Truly, I am. I didn't mean to drag you into whatever happened..." Rafik said, truthfully. "But I swear none of this was intentional, I didn't mean malice towards you... The Jedi are being destroyed up at the Temple, and I watched my master be murdered right in front of me by one of our own... I'm certain many of my friends are dead now, along with many others who didn't deserve it..." he sighed, full of sorrow.

The woman's anger now started to fade after she heard that... she didn't know much about the Jedi Order, but she did now that a master and an apprentice were usually very close. She even managed to feel an amount of sympathy for him... no one deserved to have that happen to them.

"...Kavra. My name is Kavra Locke." the woman finally said.

"Huh...?" Rafik asked, confused at the introduction the woman made.

The woman, who was now known by her real name, finally managed to smile at Rafik as she crossed her arms, leaning against a nearby wall.

"You heard me... I just said my name. Now, what's yours?" Kavra asked, out of curiosity.

Surprised by Kavra telling him her name, Rafik crossed his arms. He didn't expect her to tell him her name at all. In fact, he was sure she would try to either hit him or run. Maybe both, now that he thought more about that.

"...I'm Rafik. Rafik Thul." Rafik replied.

"It's nice to meet you, Rafik... Look, I'm sorry if I came out on a bad impression back there. It's hard not to when you get shot at." Kavra sheepishly shrugged.

"I understand completely..." Rafik replied with a nod.

"I'm glad..." Kavra smiled.

The sound of a large HoloNet broadcast stopped their conversation. The two fugitives walked out of the alleyway they were in, seeing a large holographic screen on the outside of a building nearby. Hundreds of Coruscant's citizens were already clamored around to watch the mysterious broadcast on this monitor alone, so Rafik and Kavra cautiously approached while staying undetected. They stayed far from the crowds but close enough to hear what would be said...

...Nothing prepared them for a transcript they were about to see.

* * *

 _TRANSCRIPT OF IMPERIAL DECLARATION OF A NEW ORDER: Citizens of the civilized galaxy, on this day we mark a transition. For a thousand years, the Republic stood as the crowning achievement of civilized beings. But there were those who would set us against one another, and we took up arms to defend our way of life against the Separatists. In so doing, we never suspected that the greatest threat came from within._

 _The Jedi, and some within our own Senate, had conspired to create the shadow of Separatism using one of their own as the enemy's leader. They had hoped to grind the Republic into ruin. But the hatred in their hearts could not be hidden forever. At last, there came a day when our enemies showed their true natures._

 _The Jedi hoped to unleash their destructive power against the Republic by assassinating the head of government and usurping control of the clone army. But the aims of would-be tyrants were valiantly opposed by those without elitist, dangerous powers. Our loyal clone troopers contained the insurrection within the Jedi Temple and quelled uprisings on a thousand worlds._

 _The remaining Jedi will be hunted down and defeated! Any collaborators will suffer the same fate. These have been trying times, but we have passed the test. The attempt on my life has left me scarred and deformed, but I assure you my resolve has_ never _been stronger!_

 _The war is over. The Separatists have been defeated, and the Jedi rebellion has been foiled. We stand on the threshold of a new beginning. In order to ensure our security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first **Galactic Empire** , for a safe and secure society, which I assure you will last for ten thousand years! An Empire that will continue to be ruled by this august body and a sovereign ruler chosen for life. An Empire ruled by the majority, ruled by a new constitution!_

 _By bringing the entire galaxy under one law, one language, and the enlightened guidance of one individual, the corruption that plagued the Republic in its later years will never take root. Regional governors will eliminate the bureaucracy that allowed the Separatist movement to grow unchecked. A strong and growing military will ensure the rule of law._

 _Under the Empire's New Order, our most cherished beliefs will be safeguarded. We will defend our ideals by force of arms. We will give no ground to our enemies and will stand together against attacks from within or without. Let the enemies of the Empire take heed: those who challenge Imperial resolve will be crushed._

 _We have taken on a task that will be difficult, but the people of the Empire are ready for the challenge. Because of our efforts, the galaxy has traded war for peace and anarchy for stability. Billions of beings now look forward to a secure future. The Empire will grow as more planets feel the call, from the Rim to the wilds of unknown space._

 _Imperial citizens must do their part. Join our grand star fleet. Become the eyes of the Empire by reporting suspected insurrectionists. Travel to the corners of the galaxy to spread the principles of the New Order to barbarians. Build monuments and technical wonders that will speak of our glory for generations to come._

 _The clone troopers, now proudly wearing the name of "Imperial Stormtroopers", have tackled the dangerous work of fighting our enemies on the front lines. Many have died in their devotion to the Empire. Imperial citizens would do well to remember their example._

 _The New Order of peace has triumphed over the shadowy secrecy of shameful magicians. The direction of our course is clear. I will lead the Empire to glories beyond imagining._

 _We have been tested, but we have emerged stronger. We move forward as one people: the Imperial citizens of the first Galactic Empire. We will prevail. Ten thousand years of peace begins today!_

 ** _-EMPEROR PALPATINE_**

* * *

 _'Ten thousand years of peace begins today!...'_ Rafik was dumbstruck and deeply disturbed by Palpatine's speech... He met Chancellor Palpatine more than once, on account of Master Dalo and him doing assignments for the Jedi. He thought Chancellor Palpatine was a good and honest man... but now he was proclaiming that a Republic that stayed secure for a thousand years, a Galactic Republic formed on democracy and freedom... was now a Galactic _Empire?  
_

He also couldn't believe Palpatine was declaring himself an _Emperor_ now... Rafik finally sensed great darkness from Palpatine, much darker than what he sensed from Anakin Skywalker... Palpatine was truly evil. He finally realized that. How didn't any of the other Jedi notice before this? How didn't _anyone_ realize this? Did Palpatine order the Clones to attack the Jedi Temple...? Why would he do such a thing...? Unless... he was a Sith Lord _all along!_ That had to be the reason for the darkness! Maybe even the reason why Skywalker was now following the path of the Dark Side...

There was so many thoughts going through Rafik's mind, and the shock was so much that he almost fell over. Thankfully Kavra brought him out of those thoughts.

"Are you okay...?" Kavra suddenly asked.

"W- What?" Rafik asked, being stirred out of his thoughts.

"Are you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost." Kavra stated.

Rafik looked back at the holographic screen, seeing it was now showing brand new Imperial propaganda... The Galactic Republic was dead, the Jedi Order is in tatters, and now he was on the run from the Clones... or what was now known as the 'Stormtroopers', apparently. It seemed as if he was living in a nightmare, but he knew that wasn't the case... Jedi don't have nightmares.

"Chancellor Palpatine..." Rafik began, exasperated. "I thought... By the Force, he's an _emperor_ now!? He just killed the Republic! He plotted to destroy the Jedi, and we fell for it!" he exclaimed, as if he just simply couldn't believe it.

"I guess you Jedi were wrong about him... Now please, Rafik, we need to get out of here before the soldiers find us!" Kavra pleaded.

With his mind racing, so many thoughts flowing through it, Rafik decided the woman was right. They couldn't stay there for very long. They'll eventually have to leave the planet as well...

The Empire would kill them on sight if they were found...

* * *

They ran for what seemed like hours, but at last they finally found some salvation. They found an abandoned apartment that looked like a perfect place to hide while they figured out what to do next.

The two quickly went inside and locked the door behind them, thankful that now they had somewhere to rest. The apartment was a bit of a mess, but at least it was safe... at least for now.

Rafik was still confused and even a little frightened of the entire situation... Everything that happened this day was horrible, absolutely horrible. Palpatine did some truly evil things, and Anakin Skywalker helped him with it... Kavra, meanwhile, cautiously checked out the rest of the apartment. It wasn't too shabby, but lacking in luxuries. Surprisingly it wasn't in that bad of shape for being abandoned... it would work.

With a heavy sigh, Kavra sat down on a chair and began to think of what she and Rafik should do next. They had to get off of Coruscant somehow, then head to some other planet to hide for a while... Maybe Tatooine? Jakku? Cato Neimoidia? She had to think of a place in the Outer Rim that didn't have a major Imperial or Separatist presence...

She decided to sleep on it. Maybe Rafik would have an idea of where to go when she will ask him tomorrow? For now, however, the two fugitives needed to get their sleep...


	3. Chapter 3, Ashes to Ashes

_**Chapter Three: "Ashes to Ashes**_ _ **"  
**_

* * *

It was now the next morning, and Rafik and Kavra were back on the streets of Coruscant, trying to find any pilots who could take them off of the planet. They heard many were also trying to get off of Coruscant, on account of the Empire being established.

Paranoia and fear was beginning to take root on Coruscant. Most agreed with Palpatine and his lies on how the Jedi were "attempting a coup", and also about how the Republic should be reorganized into the Empire, but there was also plenty who just wanted to get back to their home planets. Unfortunately, the new Empire and the Imperials were stopping most from leaving the planet. There were reports of mass arrests and detentions... Hate crimes and attacks against many non-humans were spreading as well...

The two fugitives were in a cantina somewhere in the lower levels of Coruscant. It was a cesspool of scum and the Force knows what else, but what other choice did they have? The only problem was that they didn't have any credits to offer any pilot, but they hoped they could figure something out.

Rafik and Kavra were examining people inside of the cantina, trying to tell if any of them were smugglers or mercenaries, or anyone else who could pilot a ship. Unfortunately, they weren't having much luck at all, since many of these smugglers refused to help them without any credits. No credits, no transport. It was that simple.

Eventually the two fugitives gave up with trying to find a pilot in the cantina, so they just left. They were seriously worried and stressed about what was going to happen in the future... Sooner or later, the Empire will find them if they fail to get off of Coruscant, and they'll both be executed...

"Do you got any ideas...?" Rafik asked as they walked.

"No... I don't." Kavra sighed. "The Empire will find us if we don't think of some sort of way off of this planet." she stated.

"Yes, you're right... We'll think of something. I'm positive." Rafik assured.

With a sigh and a nod, Kavra decided to agree with him for now. Maybe they'd get lucky... They walked around the streets for a while, trying to lay as low as they could. They eventually saw a large facility that appeared to be full of many thousands of species, all trying to get off of Coruscant before the Imperials would crack down on all ships trying to leave the planet. It appeared it was some sort of a refugee facility with many distant worlds as arrivals.

Needless to say, Rafik and Kavra took a liking to that idea. It looked like a perfect way to get off world.

"That could work... We could find a way to sneak aboard one of the ships, get some disguises... we'd be off of Coruscant before anyone could stop us." Kavra said.

"I agree... That's an old Jedi trick, actually. Me and many other Jedi used it a lot. If you needed to move someone to another world or protect a target, then we'd use the refugee routes." Rafik explained.

"We'll need to find a way to get past any Clones or guards that may be in the way..." Kavra stated.

"We can figure it all out soon... but we'll need to do it fast, otherwise we're not getting off of Coruscant." Rafik replied.

Kavra nodded in agreement with what Rafik said. There was still many things they'd have to go over, but hopefully it would all turn out for the better. Without really knowing what else to do for the time being, the two of them went back to the abandoned apartment to come up with a plan to get onto one of the refugee transports, hoping that they would have a plan that would actually work...

* * *

 _"Execute Order 66."_

Rafik felt afraid, deathly afraid. He didn't know where it was coming from, he didn't know who was saying it and he didn't know what he could do about it. He could run, he could run as far as he wanted, but the words kept getting louder and louder and louder, the intensity and fear building up within him with every time the sentence was spoken.

 _"Execute Order 66."_

What was it? What was Order 66? Was it the order to massacre every Jedi in the galaxy? Was it the codeword used by Palpatine to commence the revenge of the Sith upon the Jedi Order? Whatever the reason for it, it frightened Rafik to his very core, and he could sense other Jedi were afraid as well. The next thing he knew was that he was in the Jedi Temple again, and this time he wasn't able to do anything at all as he was forced to watch all of his friends and fellow Jedi Knights being massacred by the Clone troopers.

 _"Execute Order 66."_

Rafik watched a very familiar face approach the younglings inside of the Council chambers. The person was none other than Anakin Skywalker, and when he went inside he readied his Lightsaber. To Rafik's renewed horror, he watched as Anakin began to massacre the poor defenseless children inside...

 _"Execute Order 66."_

After seeing Master Dalo being murdered again, Rafik was backed into a corner by two figures surrounded by Clones. One was a man clad in full black armor and a black helmet, and to Rafik he appeared to be some sort of a monster. The man's loud mechanical breathing and his red Lightsaber was seared into Rafik's memory. The other man was a man with a severe facial deformation and was clad in black robes, and he appeared to be very aged and almost fully pale. He could barely make him out through the hood he was wearing...

 _"Execute Order 66."  
_

The two figures approached Rafik, with the hooded man chuckling sinisterly. Suddenly, he felt as if a million daggers were piercing his skin when he felt lightning shooting from the hooded man's fingertips. He only chuckled louder and louder as he saw Rafik's misery, increasing the voltage of the lightning by tapping deeper into the Force...

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the man stopped the lightning. Rafik fell to the floor and clutched his chest, gasping for air due to the pain and shock of the electrocution. He noticed his Lightsaber was nearby... he crawled towards it, actually getting it into his hand before the armored man stepped on his hand and the Lightsaber it was in. Rafik screamed as he felt the mechanical leg crushing the Lightsaber, along with every single bone in his hand. He slowly looked up at the figure, staring deep into the darkened eyes on his helmet.

"Lord Vader... deal with this Jedi." the hooded figure ordered.

The armored man, _Darth Vader,_ readied his red Lightsaber and lifted it up, looking down at Rafik for a few moments as he did. Finally, he thrust the Lightsaber downwards, and Rafik felt the super-heated red blade of plasma pierce his heart...

* * *

" _-afik...?_ Rafik... Hey, Rafik, _wake up!_ "

Rafik opened his eyes with a start and quickly sat up, beyond horrified at what he just dreamt. He kept telling himself it was just a nightmare, and that's all it would ever be... he hoped. What was that he kept hearing? 'Order 66'? He sighed and pushed it out of his mind for the moment, regaining his composure.

"I'm fine... I'm fine... it was just a bad dream." Rafik sighed. He still felt very tired...

"Are you sure you're okay? It looked bad." Kavra stated.

"I'm fine, I promise... What time is it?" Rafik curiously asked.

"I don't know... It's morning, but I think it might be around noon. You slept for a while." Kavra stated.

Rafik nodded and he got himself out of bed, stretching a bit. He looked out of a nearby window and saw that it was indeed daytime, and he still felt very tired. The nightmare was pretty severe, but maybe the best thing to do was forget about it for the meantime. He still had a few things to do... He looked over at Kavra, tiredly smiling at her.

"I got something to do before we get on a refugee craft..." Rafik said to her.

Kavra just blinked with a feeling of confusion. They had to get off planet immediately! They could be swarmed by Clone troopers at any moment! What could he possibly have to do right now, pick up his laundry?!

"What?! But Rafik, we _need_ to get off Coruscant! We don't have time to spare..." Kavra stated.

"I'll only be a few hours... We'll get off planet by the end of the day, I promise." Rafik smiled reassuringly.

As he headed for the door, Kavra just watched him as he began to leave. She had no idea where he was going... But she just hoped that he would be back soon. She didn't want to leave by herself with the Empire hunting her...

"Well... where are you going? Can you tell me that at least?" Kavra asked.

Rafik stopped in the doorway and turned to look back at her, still smiling a little bit as he did. It was obvious where he was going... He needed to get some things, and there was only one place on Coruscant he could find them. He knew Kavra would be alright, and that the Force will hopefully be with them both.

"I'm going back to the Jedi Temple."

* * *

Having to evade many Imperial patrols and having to do miles of walking and hitching a ride on a speeder, Rafik finally made it back to the Jedi Temple after he left the abandoned apartment an hour before. The Jedi Temple appeared to be in a very bad shape... Blaster wounds were all over the exterior, small craters were in places from exploded grenades, and a large amount of smoke was rising from somewhere within the temple.

He approached from the front of the building, surveying the damaged as he walked up the massive amount of steps that led to the front doors. He noticed that there was a squad of Clone soldiers guarding the area, but he kept on walking. The Clones soon noticed him, but only thought he was a civilian as they aimed their blasters at him.

"Hold! This area is off limits, civilian. By order of the Emperor himself." a Clone officer said.

 _"You all don't need to aim your weapons at me..."_ Rafik replied, waving his hand in front of them.

Honestly, Rafik didn't use Jedi mind tricks that much, and he didn't have a lot of practice in using that ability. It appeared to be working though, as the Clone soldiers suddenly lowered their weapons and appeared much more relaxed.

"We don't need to aim our weapons at you..." the Clone officer said.

 _"You all need to go and patrol the area, and leave me alone..."_ Rafik said with a wave of his hand.

"We all need to go and patrol the area, and we will leave you alone..."

 _"I am allowed entrance into the Jedi Temple..."_

"You are allowed entrance into the Jedi Temple..."

 _"Move along..."_

The Clone officer waved his hand towards the Jedi Temple's entrance, still under the effects of the Jedi mind trick. The weak minded could easily be swayed by the mind trick, although Rafik was actually a bit surprised to see that some elite Clone soldiers were a bit weak minded.

"Move along, move along." the Clone officer told him.

Rafik smirked at his accomplishment of fooling the Clones as he resumed walking up the steps, leaving the Clone soldiers as they began to go on a patrol in the streets. Rafik managed to get all the way to the top of the steps without any other problems and he walked into the Jedi Temple for the first time in a few days... it looked just as bad inside as it did on the outside. There was still many corpses lining the halls inside, and many fires were still out of control inside the Temple...

"I've got a bad feeling about this..." Rafik muttered to himself as he started walking in. He was deeply saddened and a bit disturbed to see the bodies of the Jedi Knights laying where they fell, and his former home in ruins and many of his friends surely killed...

He kept walking through the Jedi Temple, wanting to get a sense of closure as he walked through it for what he was sure would be the final time. So many memories flooded through him. Training sessions with his friend Ahsoka Tano and other Padawans, the months of research on the history of the Jedi, building his first Lightsaber... the list went on. He only wanted to visit this place one more time before he left Coruscant... But he suddenly stopped, slowly going wide eyed when he went into the courtyard where he faced off against Anakin Skywalker...

He saw where Master Dalo died...

 _All that remained of Master Dalo was a crumpled brown robe..._

Rafik slowly approached the robe with a feeling of shock as he saw his master's body had disappeared. He crouched down on one knee and touched the robe, as if to make sure his eyes weren't deceiving him... They weren't.

But Rafik also felt something else in the robes. He opened the robes and he slowly went wide eyed as he saw a Jedi Holocron was there, right in front of him. How did Master Dalo receive a Jedi Holocron? He wasn't a Council member or Chief Librarian, so he had no official way to get one. Rafik put aside that curiosity for now and he decided to hold onto the Holocron, as he knew that probably almost all of the others had to have been taken by then. He had to keep it safe no matter what. He couldn't let the Empire take this one, not the one his master had.

Rafik stuffed Master Dalo's Holocron inside of his Jedi robes before he decided to keep walking. He then suddenly stopped as he realized he stepped on something. He looked down and saw that it was a functioning Lightsaber, but who knew what Jedi it was from. With a sigh, Rafik also reluctantly picked up the Lightsaber and attached it onto his belt. He knew it wasn't his weapon, it didn't belong to him, but he had to use it until he could make a replacement one. He hoped the Jedi who originally owned it would understand if they were alive...

Suddenly he heard a massive amount of laser fire, and he knew that it had to be Clone soldiers. Rafik activated the Lightsaber he found and he hurried outside, quickly making his way to a courtyard. What he saw there absolutely shocked him... Two Jedi were fighting over a dozen Clones, but that isn't what surprised him. Who they were was what surprised him.

Jedi Masters Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi were defeating the Clones, one after another. It wasn't very hard work for them, and it was pretty quick before the last Clone soldier fell to Yoda's blade. The two masters finally deactivated their Lightsabers, then turned and saw that Rafik was standing there, watching them with the feeling of shock he still had.

All the two of them did was smile, happy to see at least one other surviving Jedi Knight.

 _"Nice to see you it is, Rafik."_ Yoda commented.

"Masters... You survived!" Rafik said with a smile finally forming on his face.

"We managed to, yes. Our Clone troops turned against us both, but we managed to get away from them. It seems all the Jedi in the Galaxy are under threat now..." Obi-Wan told him.

Rafik nodded in agreement as he finally deactivated his Lightsaber. If Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda both survived this mess, then maybe there was hope for other Jedi across the Galaxy.

"The Clones attacked here as well... Thousands of them. My master was killed and many other Jedi died as well..." Rafik sighed.

Yoda gave a sympathetic nod to the Jedi Knight in front of him. Losing someone that close to you was a very tragic and painful thing, and he saw it firsthand when Obi-Wan lost his master Qui-Gon Jinn many years before...

"Be with you, Master Dalo always will. Through the Force." Yoda said to him.

"We're here to deactivate a transmission coming from the Temple. It said the war was over, it's luring surviving Jedi to be killed." Obi-Wan said.

"That can't be allowed to stay active then... I'll help you. But I need to get off planet soon. A friend saved my life, and I owe it to her to get us both as far from the Empire as we can get." Rafik replied.

Yoda and Obi-Wan both nodded in agreement. They would all have to split up anyway, because if they stayed together then there would be a bigger chance that the Empire would find them all. Together, the three Jedi walked back inside of the Jedi Temple, going to find out what exactly happened here and to deactivate the transmission...


	4. Chapter 4, Dust to Dust

_**Chapter Four: "Dust to Dust"**_

* * *

Obi-Wan, Rafik and Yoda all walked through the remains of the Jedi Temple. They found hundreds and hundreds of bodies all around them, whether it was Clone or Jedi. It saddened them deeply, and it seemed almost every Jedi inside of the Temple died the night of Operation: KNIGHTFALL.

The three Jedi suddenly stopped when they saw the bodies of several younglings in front of them. Yoda could immediately tell something was off... these younglings weren't killed by the Clones.

"Not even the younglings survived..." Obi-Wan commented, sadly staring at the children's bodies.

Yoda took notice of a dead youngling directly in front of him, taking a look a the child's wounds. Rafik simply lowered his head mournfully, the tragic scene in front of him being almost too much to bear.

"Killed not by Clones... this Padawan. By a _Lightsaber_ he was..." Yoda stated, staring at the bodies.

Obi-Wan was shocked to hear this. The Clones didn't kill these children? Someone with a LIGHTSABER did...? Many guesses started to go through his head as to who may have done something like this. Barriss Offee? The former Darth Maul? Emperor Palpatine himself...? What monster would do such a thing? Obi-Wan crouched down to take a closer look at one of the children, a little human girl... He could clearly see a Lightsaber wound went right through her chest.

"Who...? Who could have done this?" Obi-Wan asked.

Rafik knew... He didn't say anything to Obi-Wan at that moment, because he knew it would devastate him. He had no idea what to say to the Jedi Master... There was a traitor that night in the Jedi Temple, one who murdered many younglings and many Jedi Knights alongside his Clone soldiers... It was the one person Obi-Wan Kenobi treated as a brother, a son even... It was his apprentice.

It was _Anakin Skywalker._

* * *

Kavra was getting anxious, and she was pacing back and forth inside of the abandoned apartment. What was taking Rafik so long? Was he found by the Clones? No, no, that couldn't have been the case. So many thoughts were racing through her head, and she was wondering if she should try and escape Coruscant without Rafik.

She gasped softly when she suddenly heard a knock on the door. She hurried over to it but quickly stopped dead in her tracks when she heard the person on the other side speaking.

"Is anyone in there? Imperial patrol. We need to search the apartment for Jedi fugitives. Open or we will come in by force."

Clones! Kavra went wide eyed as she quickly started to look for a place to hide. She took a peek out of a nearby window and saw that it was only two soldiers, but she knew they would come inside pretty soon. She had to hide.

"CT-7812, check this house. I'm going to continue the patrol. Radio for me if you need anything, and if you find a Jedi be sure to call for backup." one of the Clones said.

"Yes sir." the other Clone replied.

Kavra grabbed a vase and she hid inside of a nearby closet. She kept the door a tiny bit open as she saw the Clone soldier get the door open and walk inside, cautiously aiming his gun around. When she was absolutely sure his back was turned to her, she cautiously got out of the closet and raised the vase, very carefully walking towards the Clone soldier.

She was soon right behind him, and she finally hit the back of his helmet with the vase. Unfortunately, the Clone simply turned around and looked at her as if he couldn't believe she just tried that. Kavra just stood there and held some of the remains of the vase in her hand, awkwardly scratching the back of her head.

"Um... I- I thought you'd... y'know... fall down, or something." Kavra sheepishly said to the Clone.

The Clone then proceeded to aim his blaster at her, but Kavra quickly punched him in the face. Even though he was wearing a helmet, the punch was definitely enough to send him to the floor and knock him out, although it really hurt Kavra's fist. She was sure she dislocated something or possibly cracked a bone.

Suddenly, that's when the other Clone soldier came back. He aimed his blaster at Kavra when he saw the other Clone laying unconscious on the floor, but Kavra simply grabbed the Clone's blaster and fired at the other Clone. The Clone was hit directly in the chest and he slumped over, laying dead on the floor.

Kavra quickly dragged that body in before anyone outside could see what was happening. Thankfully, it appeared no one saw the scene. She took their blasters and set them aside, keeping them away from the unconscious Clone soldier. Hopefully Rafik would get back soon, because she didn't know how much longer she could wait...

She hoped he didn't get into any trouble at the Jedi Temple...

* * *

Obi-Wan, Rafik and Yoda had by now found the beacon inside of one of the Archive rooms. Obi-Wan was recalibrating the code to send a different message to all of the surviving Jedi in the Galaxy: Stay away. Rafik and Yoda were a short distance away, keeping an eye out for any more Clones as Obi-Wan worked on the transmission.

Yoda looked up at Rafik and he could easily see the young Jedi was troubled, that something was bothering him.

"Troubling you something is?" Yoda asked.

"Yes master... I- I know the person who was helping the Clones." Rafik sighed.

Yoda nodded at that as he also knew who it was. He didn't want it to be true either, but there was nothing that could be done about that. Anakin Skywalker had turned to the Dark Side, he was now fully consumed by Darth Vader and there was no getting him back.

"I know... Skywalker, it is. And not willing to tell Obi-Wan are you?" Yoda asked.

"Yes, that's the case... But how do we tell him? Anakin was his best friend..." Rafik stated.

"Saddened Obi-Wan will be, yes... But know he must. Skywalker is a Sith Lord. Apprentice to the Emperor he is now. Defeated he must be before more Jedi fall due to him." Yoda stated.

Rafik gave out another sigh and then he nodded. Master Yoda was right... Vader was a threat to every surviving Jedi Knight now, himself included. The only person who had any chance of defeating Darth Vader is Obi-Wan Kenobi. Yoda could put up a formidable fight, but Vader was too strong in the Force now. At least Obi-Wan knew probably all of Vader's moves... Yoda also had to try to assassinate the Emperor, which would be enough of a challenge on its own, and Rafik's abilities didn't even come close compared to Obi-Wan's or Yoda's.

Obi-Wan had soon finished modifying the transmission, happy that at least some Jedi would survive because of it. He just hoped they could survive the New Order trying to hunt them all down...

"I've recalibrated the code, warning all surviving Jedi to stay away." Obi-Wan announced.

"For the Clones... to discover the recalibration a long time it would take." Yoda stated.

"I agree... A lot of remaining Jedi are going to survive because of this, at least for a while. This was the right thing to do." Rafik said.

The three Jedi soon walked away from the transmission emitter and into a security room. Their intention was to get out of the Jedi Temple, but Obi-Wan suddenly stopped, which caused Yoda and Rafik to look at him.

"Wait... There is something I must know." Obi-Wan told them.

Obi-Wan then walked over to a nearby hologram emitter, one designed to monitor all security recordings made in the Jedi Temple. Yoda and Rafik quickly realized that Obi-Wan wanted to know exactly who betrayed the Jedi, and who helped the Clones kill them all...

"If into the security recordings you go, only pain will you find." Yoda warned.

"I must know the truth, Master..." Obi-Wan replied.

Yoda simply sighed and allowed Obi-Wan to continue. Rafik cautiously walked to the other side of the emitter, wanting to see the recordings for himself. The first few videos didn't show much, just Jedi walking the halls or the likes of that, so Obi-Wan quickly flipped through them and continued to other videos. Finally, he stopped on one... it was nothing short of horrifying to him. It showed Anakin Skywalker, his apprentice, killing other Jedi with his Lightsaber...

 _...Anakin?_ Anakin was the traitor...?

Rafik stared sadly as he saw the moment Master Dalo was killed by Vader, and Obi-Wan just kept staring with a feeling of shock mixed with heartbreak.

"It can't be... _It can't be._ " Obi-Wan said to himself, as if he didn't want to believe it.

Another video then popped up. It was the Emperor himself, standing in the ruins of the Jedi Temple with his new apprentice. Darth Vader was on one knee in front of his new Master, much to Obi-Wan's sadness. It was true... Anakin Skywalker had turned to the Dark Side...

"You have done well, my new apprentice. Now, _Lord Vader,_ go and bring peace to the Empire." the Emperor said to Vader.

That's when Obi-Wan suddenly turned off the hologram emitter. He couldn't believe Anakin Skywalker was Darth Vader now, that he had turned to the Dark Side of the Force... that he killed all those children, almost all of the Jedi Knights. It was so much to take in...

"I can't watch anymore..." Obi-Wan managed to say.

"Destroy the Sith we must." Yoda replied.

 _Kill_ Anakin...? No, no, there had to be another way. Obi-Wan couldn't even begin to process that thought. He cared for Anakin too much...

"Send me to kill the Emperor. I will _not_ kill Anakin." Obi-Wan said.

"To fight this Lord Sidious, strong enough you are not." Yoda stated.

Rafik felt very bad for Obi-Wan. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to have to fight your own apprentice, and maybe even have to kill him...

"He is like my brother. I can not do it!" Obi-Wan said.

"Twisted by the Dark Side young Skywalker has become. The boy you trained, gone he is. Consumed by _Darth Vader._.." Yoda said to him. He truly believed that Anakin Skywalker couldn't be redeemed from the Dark Side, and that now only Darth Vader is all that remained of him. He was a threat to every surviving Jedi now...

"Skywalker killed many Jedi... I don't know if he can be brought back to the Light. This may be the only way, Master Kenobi. I'm so sorry..." Rafik added.

Obi-Wan knew they were both right, but he still held out hope that Anakin may still have some good in him. He just needed to try and find him... but where did he go? Where could he look? He had no idea.

"I do not know where the Emperor has sent him... I don't know where to look." Obi-Wan said.

"Use your feelings, Obi-Wan, and find him you will." Yoda replied with a small smile of confidence.

Obi-Wan knew Yoda was right... He had to find Anakin, and he knew a good place to start. Padme Amidala's apartment... Rafik, however, knew he couldn't stay much longer since he had to get back to Kavra. He didn't know how this would end for Obi-Wan or Yoda, but he wished them all the best. Hopefully Vader and Palpatine would be destroyed, and the remaining Jedi will survive...

He and Kavra had to get off Coruscant as soon as they could...

* * *

Rafik walked with Obi-Wan and Yoda to the front steps of the Jedi Temple. They all did what they went there to do, and now they had to go their separate ways. Obi-Wan had to fight Darth Vader, Yoda had to fight Darth Sidious...

The three had their own destinies to follow and all three of them understood that completely. Obi-Wan went to a speeder that was parked on one of the landing platforms outside, smiling warmly at Rafik. He had so much potential in the Force, and he was glad he trusted it completely.

"Goodbye Rafik. I wish you well for whatever you do in the future... May the Force be with you." Obi-Wan said to him.

"May the Force be with you as well, Master Kenobi. Good luck." Rafik replied.

The two of them shook hands as they ended their farewells. Obi-Wan Kenobi went to the speeder and boarded it, waving at Rafik before he drove away to get to Padme Amidala's apartment, finally starting his search for Darth Vader... Yoda stood next to the young Jedi, watching Obi-Wan as he left. They just hoped he would succeed in finding Vader and stopping him...

Yoda then finally looked up at Rafik, actually giving him a reassuring smile.

"To fight the Emperor I must go... Your destiny is your own, but warned you should be. If you start down the Dark path like Vader, forever it will dominate your destiny. Trust in the Force, Rafik, always." Yoda said.

"I will, Master Yoda... I promise I will." Rafik replied.

That's when the wise old master had to depart. Master Yoda slowly began walking down the steps of the Jedi Temple, and although he looked frail he would be a very formidable match for the Emperor. Rafik just simply stayed for several minutes, turning to look back at the Temple, smiling a little bit at it. He eventually turned and he began walking down the steps, leaving the Temple for what was probably the very last time...

He hoped Kavra didn't get herself in any trouble...

* * *

Rafik was soon back on the street where the abandoned apartment was. He snuck his way past several Imperial patrols, and he tried not to get noticed by any of Coruscant's citizens. The last thing he needed was to get swarmed by a mob for thinking Jedi were evil...

He got to the door but soon heard shouting inside. He went wide eyed as he thought Kavra may have been in some sort of danger, so he ran to the door and pushed it open. He wasn't prepared to see a dead Clone soldier laying on the ground, and another surviving Clone tied up in a chair. Kavra was just sitting near him while aiming a blaster at him, but she looked away once she saw Rafik enter the apartment.

Rafik simply blinked, and Kavra only gave him an awkward smile.

"Sorry about the mess." Kavra simply said to him.


	5. Chapter 5, The Great Escape

**_Chapter Five: "The Great Escape"_**

* * *

Rafik and Kavra were now interrogating the captured Clone soldier. His unit designation was CT-7812, but he said his nickname to his squadmates was "Lak", since some in his old unit always said he was 'lackluster' when he was training on Kamino. However, that was basically all he would say to them, as he remained silent for a while after that. His hands were bound behind a chair he was sitting on, and they were sure he wouldn't be able to break free.

They weren't going to kill him, obviously. All they wanted to know was if every Clone in the Galaxy wanted the Jedi dead. Was it an order they followed willingly? Or were they programed to do it? And they also wanted direct confirmation that it was Palpatine who gave out the order.

"Please, Lak, just tell us... That's all we want to know, and we'll let you go." Rafik pleaded.

Lak just simply remained silent. He wasn't going to let this... _Jedi scum_... have any information. He's loyally served the Republic and the Jedi since the Battle of Geonosis and the beginning of the Clone Wars a few years prior. But now that the Empire has been formed and the 'treachery' of the Jedi was revealed, he knew the Jedi were absolutely evil... He just needed to wait for an opportunity to escape.

Kavra and Rafik both looked at each other and walked a short distance away to talk. They had to think about what to do with this soldier... However, what they didn't know was that Lack had a small blade that was hidden in his wrist plate, and he brought it out and began to cut the restraints that was behind his back.

"What do we do?" Kavra asked.

"We're not murdering him, that's far below us..." Rafik replied.

"I wasn't saying _that!_ I was only asking... Do we leave him tied up?"

"I don't know... I rarely dealt with something like this."

"So, we can't kill him and we're not leaving him tied up..."

That's when Lak finally got the restraints undone. He quickly sprung up and hurried towards the front door, wanting to escape and warn nearby Clones that there was a Jedi fugitive in this place. Rafik and Kavra went wide eyed when they saw their captive trying to escape, and Rafik quickly used the Force to push the Clone away from the door.

Unfortunately, the back of Lak's head hit the corner of a shelf that was on the wall, and he quickly fell straight to the ground. The corner of the shelf hit directly onto his inhibitor chip, in which every Clone was forced to have since indoctrination. Very few Clones actually removed them themselves... What fewer knew was that the inhibitor chips were the way Darth Sidious gave out his order to kill the Jedis...

Lak leaned up and rubbed the back of his head, feeling a bit of blood and also feeling bits of a broken inhibitor chip. He suddenly lost the urge to murder the Jedi in front of him, and he was deeply confused as to why that happened...

"W- What...? What's going on?" Lak asked as he looked around.

"Don't move..." Kavra warned as she aimed a blaster at him.

Lak looked up and he saw Rafik standing in front of him. But now he didn't want to try and kill him at all... Lak stood up and saluted, as if nothing at all happened within the last few days.

"Commander Thul, sir!" Lak saluted.

"What...? What are you doing?" Rafik asked.

That's when Lak suddenly put his hands on the sides of his head, cringing from a severe amount of pain that began to flood through his cranium. He reached back and pulled the remains of the chip out from the back of his head, throwing it all onto the floor in front of him. He proceeded to fall onto his knees, painfully gasping for breath. But pretty soon the pain began to recede, and it finally faded away...

"O- Oh man..." Lak muttered as he finally stood back up. It really hurt, but he was glad it was finally over.

"You okay...?" Kavra asked, still aiming a blaster at him.

"Never better..." Lak said with a lot of sarcasm in it. He brushed himself off and sat back down on a chair, still keeping a hand on the back of his bleeding head. Rafik motioned to Kavra to signal she could lower her weapon, and against her better judgement she lowered it.

"What was all of that, Lak...? What's going on? Why did all of you Clones turn on us?" Rafik asked.

"I- I don't know, sir... Everyone in my unit received orders from Palpatine himself, and he told us that Order Sixty-Six was to be executed. I never heard of it before, but... I don't know, we all just suddenly wanted to kill Jedi. He told us you all were traitors... I've always been loyal to the Jedi and the Republic, sir. I'm so sorry..." Lak explained with a feeling of guilt.

That explained it... At least most of the Clones didn't do this from their own free will. It was a deliberate order planted into the inhibitor chips of every single Clone soldier. The Sith must have planned this for much longer than he realized... Maybe they planed this since long before the Clone Wars began. It made sense...

"By the Force..." Rafik sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. How could the Jedi have not noticed this...?

Suddenly they heard knocks on the door. Rafik, Lak and Kavra all went wide eyed as they realized another Clone patrol had showed up, possibly intent on finding Lack and the other Clone that Kavra shot. Lak hurried over to the chair he was tied up against and he quickly grabbed his helmet, putting it on and grabbing his blaster before he looked back at the others in the room.

"Hide, I'll take care of this." Lak told them.

Kavra still didn't fully trust him, but she and Rafik quickly hurried over to a nearby closet and hid inside of it. Rafik pulled the Lightsaber he found at the Jedi Temple out of his backpack, and he was ready to activate it if anything went wrong. Lack, however, simply cleared his throat before he went to the front door and opened it, and he found himself face-to-face with five Clone soldiers.

"Lieutenant, sir." Lak said to the lead soldier.

"CT-7812, you and CT-5621 are late from your patrol. Where is CT-5621?" the lead soldier asked.

"I'm not sure sir... He said he was going a few miles away at a Mon Calamari district to investigate a report of a Jedi sighting. He didn't radio back yet... He gave me specific orders to not move, sir." Lak replied.

"A few miles away...? Hmm... We've had a few Jedi sightings near that district. We'll go check it out, but I'm leaving two soldiers with you. Head back to HQ and report in, and submit that blaster for inspection." the lead soldier ordered.

Lak nodded at all of this and he simply gave a salute. Two Clone soldiers walked inside of the building as the lead soldier left with two other Clones. One of the Clones who walked in accidentally bumped his head against the top of the doorframe, and Rafik simply sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose after he saw that. Honestly, these Clones do that sometimes for some reason, but no one was really sure why.

After making sure the lead Clone soldier was far enough away with the other two Clones, Lak just simply frowned as the two Clones suddenly discovered the body of CT-5621.

"What the-?!" one of the Clones asked.

Lak simply aimed his blaster at the Clones and he fired on them, succeeding in killing his two former brothers in arms. The two Clones slumped over onto the floor as Kavra and Rafik walked out of the closet, both of them appeared to be surprised. By killing those Clones, Lak signaled an end to his involvement with the Galactic Empire. He would be executed just like Rafik if he dared to go back to his army...

Lak just simply gave a nod of respect to his former commander. Almost all Clones used to carry respect for the Jedi before Order 66, since their Jedi Generals usually fought right alongside the Clones on the frontlines. Few generals would actually do that...

"Let's get the hell off of this planet... _sir_."

* * *

Rafik, Lak and Kavra were now walking towards a refugee center with some disguises on. Rafik used some of his remaining credits to buy them some disguises from one of the underlevel shops, where he knew Clone soldiers wouldn't be able to see them. Lak hid his Clone armor, helmet and blasters inside of a backpack, and Rafik kept his Jedi robes, Lightsaber and Holocron in another big backpack he was wearing. The three of them were now dressed as pretty average people, but they all also had hoods over their heads.

They saw the refugee center nearby after a long amount of walking. There was several Clone guards standing out in the entrance, and a huge line of all sorts of human and extraterrestrials that appeared to stretch for many blocks. There was no way they were waiting in that line, so now they had to think of a way to get inside one of the ships. The three fugitives walked around the entire complex, hoping to find a way in while also avoiding any Clone soldiers. Rafik didn't want to use his Lightsaber if any trouble arose, it would draw far too much attention...

The three of them noticed a window that was open, so they quickly climbed through it before anyone could notice them. They saw they were in a very large room full of spacecraft and possibly thousands of people, so they knew they at least had options. They just needed to see what planet would be easiest to get to...

Tatooine? Naboo? Jakku? Nar Shaddaa? There was many different ships heading to many different planets... NaJedha seemed like a decent choice at first, but they soon heard the Imperials were strengthening their presence on the planet, so that was basically off the table.

There HAD to be someplace in the Galaxy where the Empire couldn't find them...

They soon saw hundreds of Clone soldiers beginning to move around the refugee center. The three fugitives realized that they were starting to comb the area to find any Jedi fleeing the planet. If they found Rafik, all three would be shot...

Finally, they saw a nearby cargo freighter being loaded with some refugees and supplies. They had no clue where it would end up, but they hurried over to it since the Clones would get there any second. They boarded at where the cargo was being loaded, since they figured it would be best to stay away from the refugees for the time being. After they boarded, the final bit of cargo was sent up and the doors shut behind them. Pretty soon after that, the last of the refugees were brought into the craft, and there were now over 3,000 people on the ship.

Pretty soon the ship began to lift off of the surface, soon blasting up towards space. Rafik, Kavra and Lak all looked out of a nearby window and watched as the surface of Coruscant became more and more distant, and they kept watching as they soon ended up in space. The three had no clue where they would end up, but they were just happy to get off of the capital planet of the Empire...

Rafik sighed as he tried finding a place to sit and relax until they get somewhere. Kavra and Lak continued looking outside as Rafik pulled out the Holocron from his backpack, and he closed his eyes as he used the Force to finally open it. There was a message that was planted inside... he knew he needed to see it.

When he opened his eyes he wasn't surprised to see a hologram of Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. The message in the Holocron was the one Kenobi used to replace the one in the Jedi Archives... hopefully the Empire hadn't deactivated that beacon yet, but even so there'd be copies on most Jedi Holocrons...

 _"This is Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. I regret to report that both our Jedi Order and the Republic, have fallen with a dark shadow of the Empire rising to take their place."_ Obi-Wan said in the hologram.

Kavra and Lak both turned when they heard this, and they soon went over to Rafik so they could hear the message with him. Kavra had no clue who Kenobi was, but Lak remembered serving with him from the conflicts on Christophsis, Geonosis and Ryloth, among others.

 _"This message is a warning and a reminder for any surviving Jedi._ Trust in The Force _. Do not return to the Temple…that time has past. And our future is uncertain. We will each be challenged. Our trust. Our faith. Our friendships. But we must persevere. And in time, a new hope will emerge. May the Force be with you, always..."_ Obi-Wan finished.

The message ended and Rafik shut the Holocron, putting it back in his backpack. He smiled as he sensed other surviving Jedi had seen the message, and he was thankful that at least some were alive for the time being.

"Who was that...?" Kavra asked.

"Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi... I ran into him and another Jedi Master at the Temple. He's well liked in the Jedi Order, and he's a very strong Jedi. I'm sure he'll survive somewhere..." Rafik explained.

"He's a great man... He saved a lot of Clone lives, and he fought honorably for the Republic." Lak added.

Kavra nodded and settled in on a cloth sack. She decided it was probably time to get some rest, which was much needed considering that she didn't get much of it in the last few days... Soon Lak sat down against a wall and he fell asleep as well. Rafik, however, simply stayed awake, as he had a many great amount of things on his mind...

Soon the ship went into hyperspace and quickly leaving Coruscant behind, heading to a destination unknown to the three fugitives...


	6. Chapter 6: Trouble on Taris

**_Chapter Six: "Trouble on Taris."_**

* * *

The three fugitives were on the ship for a few days. Even with it going into hyperspace, it still had a journey that took some time. Thankfully there weren't any Clone soldiers on the ship aside from Lak, so the three of them managed to get themselves some food in the ship's mess hall before getting back to the cargo hold. In the meantime, Rafik was still thinking about the message Obi-Wan made, and he kept repeating one sentence in his mind:

 _"Trust in the Force..."_

Master Kenobi was right. They had to trust in the Force... it would see them through this. Lak eventually came back from the mess hall with a bit of food for the three of them, so the three of them ate their meager rations as they kept waiting for the ship to stop. They were sure it had to stop at one point or another... That's when the ship finally came out of hyperspace, surprising the three fugitives from how sudden the end of it was. But where were they now...?

They looked out of the nearby window and they saw a city-world similar to Coruscant. However, it was not beautiful and full of life like that planet. No, this planet was a cesspool; a scared and faded rock floating around a star in the most backwards corner of the Galaxy. Kavra and Lak didn't recognize the place, but Rafik easily knew what place this was... The history of the Jedi Order had a chapter here, a great Jedi hero and his allies helped fight the Sith thousands of years ago there, back when it was a world that rivaled Coruscant or Alderaan in its beauty...

This planet is called _"Taris"_. Four thousand years before, it was a planet which rivaled Coruscant or Alderaan in its prestige. But the Sith ravaged the entire planet with an orbital bombardment during the Jedi Civil War, forever changing the planet as the Galaxy knew it and killing countless billions of people. The planet still hadn't fully healed and still hadn't reinvigorated itself since then, and now many of the population live in poverty. At the very least it was a good place to hide for a little while before moving on.

He hoped they'd be safe there from the Empire...

* * *

After another hour or two the ship landed on the surface of Taris, specifically on a large landing pad that was near some temporary refugee housing. The Taris they saw today was drastically different from the one 4,000 years ago. The towering skyscrapers and many ships were replaced with some urban decay and shipwrecks, and there was a lot of street beggers and shantytowns. Some skyscrapers survived, but only the wealthy and powerful of Taris got to reside inside of them.

Needless to say, the three of them didn't like it one bit. They planned to stay only for a little bit before they could find another ship to take them somewhere. They climbed out of the cargo hold and found their way out of the ship and quickly hurried off of the landing pad, getting into the streets. It was very crowded due to the foot traffic, but the three somehow managed to stay with each other.

"Where are we?" Kavra asked. She proceeded to accidentally bump right into a droid carrying a bunch of crates, so she quickly apologized and hurried past it as it cursed at her in whatever language it spoke.

"We're on the planet Taris. It's a dump, I know, but we'll probably be safe here for at least a little while." Rafik replied. There were many different species that lived on this planet, at least it was apparent to them from how many kept bumping into them on the crowded streets. Lak actually almost got into a fight with a Rodian because he elbowed Lak out of the way, but Rafik and Kavra somehow managed to get Lak to just let it go. The three fugitives kept walking, soon getting inside of a Tarisian bazaar. There was actually very few humans inside of it, since they were in some sort of a slum that had mostly extraterrestrials. There was many stores offering what was basically useless junk or things they had absolutely no use for, but there was also many shops offering rare meats and spices. The three of them were hungry since the food from the mess hall wasn't very filling, so they bought some things to eat and found a nearby table to sit at, and they chatted as they began to eat.

"Shame about what happened to this planet... Thousands of years ago it was similar to Coruscant, a city wide planet with many different underlevels and massive corruption. Darth Malak and his Sith fleet completely destroyed the planet four thousand years ago during the Jedi Civil War, and everything you see is because of that event." Rafik commented.

"I wonder how many people died because of something like that...? Actually, wait... I don't know if I'd want to know." Lak sighed.

Kavra curiously rose an eyebrow as she examined some sort of a sandwich she got. She took a look at the meat it was made of, and she almost screamed when she saw that it was actually some sort of a living rat-like thing. She dropped the sandwich and the creature hurriedly crawled away and out of sight somewhere on the streets. Needless to say, Kavra completely lost her appetite... Rafik and Lak just simply blinked at all of that before they went back to talking.

"Anyway...we're gonna need to figure out where to go after this. We can't stay on Taris forever." Lak stated.

"I completely agree... From the looks of it there isn't many good ships, though. This planet is a _graveyard..._ " Kavra sighed.

Rafik shrugged as a reply to the both of them. Soon the three (two if you count Kavra tossing what was left of her sandwich away) finished their meals and they just kept walking. They had no real clue where to go or what to do, but anything was better than being back on Coruscant... There was Imperials on the planet since it was a member of the Republic, but Rafik knew there wasn't much since most troops were originally busy fighting the Sepratists.

But how were they going to get off the planet when the time comes...? They couldn't stay here forever. Well, they _could_ , but sooner or later the Empire would find them. Thankfully they did manage to find an abandoned home inside of one of the shantytowns on the surface. It was even more of a dump than the abandoned apartment on Coruscant, but it'd work for at least a little while...

Lak cringed a little as he saw the conditions inside. It was absolutely a planet of poverty... There was three decent beds, thankfully, but everything else looked ransacked.

"Well... I guess it can work for a while." Lak said with a hint of reluctance.

"It'll have to until we get off this planet. But I don't have a clue on where to go... I don't know which Jedi Temples in the Galaxy were compromised or not, so we may need to drift for a bit." Rafik replied.

Kavra sat down on a rickety chair, sighing as she leaned her head back to look up at the ceiling as she tried her hardest to relax.

"I remember from news reports that Ryloth had a Republic presence... Kashyyyk, Cato Neimoidia and Dantooine had the Republic on those planets as well. Now that the Empire is here, it'll be difficult to hide on planets with major Imperial presences. Well, maybe Alderaan could work, but I'm not so sure." Kavra shrugged.

"Let's all just sleep on it..." Lak suggested. "Let's just sleep, clear our heads since we're exhausted, and tomorrow we can figure all of this out." he commented.

Rafik and Kavra both nodded in agreement with this. Them all being exhausted surely wasn't helping any of them think. The three fugitives went to their beds and somehow managed to fall asleep, even though they had much on their minds...

* * *

 _Rafik could see a gleaming and beautiful planet covered by nature. Billions of citizens going about their day..._

 _Peaceful and calm, the way it had been for a millennia... The planet had stature throughout the Galaxy, and few other places anywhere else could claim the majesties it boasted. Which planet was it? Rafik couldn't tell..._

 _But then, something goes wrong. Something terrifyingly wrong... Something in the sky? A giant orb...? What could it be?_

 _"_ You may fire when ready _." Rafik suddenly hears. The voice sounded so familiar to him... Why is he seeing and hearing all of this?  
_

 _Then the sky itself ignites in fire, the ground shakes and cracks as billions scream in terror before their deaths by fire... The Force itself shudders from this unnatural event, a type of disturbance it had not felt since the beginning of Order 66... Was this a warning of things to come?_

 _He had to be careful... but he had a strange feeling that the Force had many things in store for him._

* * *

The three fugitives were at a cantina the next day, all were looking for anyone who would take them off of Taris and bring them to another world. Well, actually, Lak was the main one doing that. Rafik and Kavra were mainly sitting at a table and drinking, and he told her about the nightmare he had last night.

"-And how bad was this one?" Kavra asked.

"Not good... I'm not sure what I saw though. It was a planet, but I don't really know which one it was. Something bad happened there, but I'm not sure if it was an earthquake or something else. Everything was on fire..." Rafik sighed.

"I'm sure it won't happen..." Kavra assured.

"I hope you're right..." Rafik nodded.

After a few short moments Lak came back and sat down in defeat, as he was unable to find any good pilots. It appeared that they were to be stuck on this rock of a planet for at least a little while... At least that's how it was at first. A shady-appearing Weequay suddenly walked up to the trio's table and he stood in front of the three. Admittedly, the three thought he was a waiter at first, but they quickly realized he wasn't when they saw he had a pair of blasters strapped to his hips.

"I hear you're looking for a way off Taris...?" the Weequay asked.

"Yeah, we are... What's it to you?" Lak asked.

"I know of a way off the planet... Cheap, efficient and reliable. I'm part of a group who has access to ships, we'll leave it at that." the Weequay said.

The trio was, needless to say, incredibly suspicious by this offer. They knew the phrase "don't talk to strangers", but they were kinda desperate to stay one foot ahead of the Empire. Getting off Taris and continuing on was a priority. It would be a risk to accept this guy's offer, but they didn't have a choice.

"What do you want in return...?" Rafik asked, cautiously.

"We need a crew to help run one of the spice ships heading to Sriluur, so we can make you pay in work or credits." the Weequay replied.

The three fugitives looked at each other as if they wanted their opinions. Kavra knew this guy probably couldn't be trusted, but if he had a ship then they would need the ride. Lak, while having some sense of honor since he was a soldier, thought the best course of action was to just steal a ship from someone. Rafik just wanted a peaceful solution to getting off the planet. Finally, the three of them nodded at each other, signalling that they all intended to go along with this guy.

"Alright... We agree." Rafik said to the Weequay.

"Excellent!" the Weequay smirked. "Just head over to underlevel six, and then make your way over to docking bay forty-nine, me and my crewmates will be waiting for you all there." he added.

The three fugitives nodded as the strange Weequay walked away from their table, leaving the three to their thoughts. It was a longshot, but if this person was telling the truth then they could be able to keep moving, keep being ahead of the Empire for the time being...

* * *

After an hour or two of trying to find an elevator leading down to the underlevels, the three fugitives finally managed to find one. They kept their weapons close as a precaution as the elevator began to head down into the underlevels, but they hoped they wouldn't need to get into some sort of a firefight.

"Commander, do you have that Lightsaber still?" Lak inquired as he readied his blaster.

"Yeah, Lak, I got it close... By the way, just call me 'Rafik'. I'm not exactly a commander anymore." Rafik replied as he hooked the Lightsaber to his belt.

"Roger that, sir- Er, _Rafik,_ I mean." Lak replied, feeling a bit hesitant to break protocol like that. Although, too be fair, he wasn't exactly a soldier in the Grand Army of the Republic anymore either...

Kavra readied a blaster that she had, holstering it as the elevator reached the sixth underlevel. The doors opened pretty quickly and the three fugitives headed down a pathway. Strangely, there was no one else along the route they were walking on... what was going on here? The three were confused as they got to docking bay forty-nine, as they saw only a few freighters inside and absolutely no people at all. The two closest ships to them was a black, blue and white YT-2400 light freighter among many other ships. Most of the ships seemed okay, but the YT-2400 looked like a hunk of heavily-modified garbage. Honestly, someone did pretty good at taking care of that ship, but they could tell from the damage that it had definitely seen too many battles.

"Hey, you three!" they suddenly heard a voice asked.

The three fugitives turned to see a lone Weequay heading towards them, and it wasn't the same one from earlier. This one was different... He was wearing a strange metal hat and a pair of goggles on his head. He also had some expensive looking clothing and gear on and he had a blaster holstered on his thigh. The Weequay seemed pretty familiar to Rafik for some strange reason...

"You must be the three crewmates! Excellent! Allow me to introduce myself... I am Hondo Ohnaka." the Weequay said, introducing himself.

Rafik's eyes immediately widened. He knew exactly who this person was! He was a pirate! He even captured Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker once or twice, along with Count Dooku himself! Rafik grabbed his Lightsaber and quickly ignited it, frowning as he threateningly pointed the tip of it towards Hondo.

"Ohnaka, stay right where you are!" Rafik warned.

Hondo laughed a lot at seeing Rafik igniting his Lightsaber, and he laughed so much that he clutched his sides and almost fell onto the floor. He wouldn't stop laughing for what seemed like several minutes, causing the three fugitives to just stare in confusion.

"Y- You're gonna do that?! _Really?!_ " Hondo laughed. He eventually managed to calm himself, and he even set his blaster onto the floor just to show he wasn't going to hurt them or try anything else. At least that's what he wanted them to think...

Seeing him put his blaster on the ground calmed the three fugitives. Lak and Kavra didn't know who this guy was, but they were just happy to see Rafik deactivate his Lightsaber for the time being. Hondo began to approach the three fugitives as Rafik looked at the two next to him with a frown on his face.

"This man is a pirate, one of the most skilled of his kind. He's managed to capture Jedi, and he even captured a _Sith Lord_ once. He is not to be trifled with or trusted, okay?" Rafik advised.

"Gotcha." Kavra nodded.

Hondo gave the three fugitives a friendly wave as he approached them, as if they were some really old friends to him or something like that. His behavior was... strange, but hopefully nothing serious would happen. Hondo did a double take when he saw Kavra, and he gave a sly smirk to her.

"Why hello there, beautiful... I'm Hondo." Hondo smirked as he tried to make a move.

"I'd rather date a _gundark_ than you." Kavra frowned, rolling her eyes as he tried to hit on her.

Hondo shrugged at that reply. He did think she was pretty hot, but since it was a longshot she would accept he decided to give up with that. Hondo clapped his hands together and looked over at Rafik, smirking at the Jedi.

"So, Jedi, you're trying to get off of Taris, I hear? Hondo can easily help with that, provided of course you're all willing to work." Hondo said.

"Yeah, we are..." Rafik cautiously replied.

That's when Rafik felt a strange pressure on his right shoulder. He turned and almost shouted from surprise when he saw some strange red creature with green hair on the tip of its tail, neck and head. The creature hissed at him a little bit before it jumped off of him and straight to Hondo's shoulder as the man crossed his arms.

"That is my pet, Mukmuk. He isn't going to be a problem for you, Jedi, so do not worry." Hondo explained.

"He certainly seems like a... _'friendly'_ type." Rafik hesitantly said. That creature kind of crept him out a little... He then noticed that Mukmuk had something in his hands. Something shiny and metal...

...It was a Lightsaber.

Rafik immediately went wide eyed as he looked down at his belt, seeing the Lightsaber wasn't there! That little freak _stole_ it from him! He was about to use the Force to pull it back when dozens of Weequays and other species showed up, all aiming blasters at the three fugitives. Hondo looked as if he was sympathetic, and he simply sighed as he crossed his arms.

"I am sorry, Jedi. Really, I am... but the new Empire put out a huge bounty for any surviving Jedi. Over a million credits per head... And trust me, the pay is enough for everyone here." Hondo said, a small smirk forming on his face near the end.

"I thought we had a deal?" Kavra frowned.

"Yes, yes, we did, and I _really_ am sorry to break it. I really do like the Jedi, but as my sweet mother always said, _'Son, if one hostage is good, two are better. And three, well, that's good business.'_. Well, actually, now that I think about it, you're captives instead of hostages, but I guess this can apply to the situation." Hondo shrugged.

Lak and Kavra aimed their blasters around them, but they knew there was too many pirates to fight, they would be far outnumbered. Rafik just crossed his arms and frowned at Hondo as two pirates slowly approached him with three pairs of binders.

"Guys, put the blasters down. We'll do as he says..." Rafik said.

"What?! You can't be serious!" Lak frowned.

"Lak, just trust me on this... Do as he says. We'll get out of this later." Rafik replied, sternly.

Lak and Kavra looked at him as if he was crazy, although he did have a point. Could a Jedi, let alone them, be able to fight dozens of pirates with only a couple of blasters? They decided to follow Rafik for the moment and the two of them quickly laid down their weapons, and the three fugitives raised their arms to signal that they were surrendering. The two pirates then proceeded to put the binders on their three new prisoners as Hondo approached them.

"Get them to the prisoner cells with the other captives." Hondo ordered.

The two pirates nodded at their boss as some other pirates took the blasters Lak and Kavra dropped. The two pirates then proceeded to lead the three fugitives away at gunpoint, heading out of the hanger and towards a flight of stairs...

They had to figure out a way out of this before the Empire would get them...


	7. Chapter 7, Into the Unknown

_**Chapter Seven: "Into the Unknown"**_

* * *

The three fugitives were tossed into the prisoner cell with their binders still on. Kavra was angrily cursing some Twi'leki curse words at them that not really anyone else in the room understood, so the guards just shrugged and walked down the hallway outside of the cell. Eventually, Kavra stopped with that and slumped down on a nearby bench, seeing Lak was busy trying to get the doors open and Rafik was sitting on the floor with his eyes closed, meditating, like how his Master suggested to do whenever he needed to figure something out.

"What're you guys here for?" they heard a voice ask.

They realized the voice must have come from the cell next to theirs. Lak momentarily paused in his efforts to open the door, but he simply didn't answer them and he kept trying to open it. Kavra went to the wall that separated their cell to the one next to theirs as she was curious who was on the other side.

"What's it to you?" Kavra asked.

"Hondo heard about the bounty I have on my head from the Hutts, so he had his pirates bag me when I was in a cantina. They even said they were gonna keep my ship as a 'bonus'..." the voice said with a hint of annoyance. "Anyway, I told you, now you guys tell me." the person added.

"Why should we?" Lak frowned as he tried opening the lock more.

They heard the person beginning to chuckle as if the person thought it was funny. What was he snickering at...?

"C'mon, one of you is a Jedi. Hondo obviously isn't collecting a bounty from the Hutts, he's collecting one from the new Empire. Jedi are going for a _lot_ of money from what I heard, but none of the other two of you look like bounty hunters. A Clone soldier who's obviously AWOL and a Twi'lek who probably just got caught up in nonsense? Please, you're both just trying to escape with that Jedi." the person stated.

The three fugitives seemed surprised by what the person said. That person definitely knew what they were...

"Are you going to tell the Empire about us? Bag yourself some credits?" Lak frowned.

"No, I'm not going to do that. Let's just say that smugglers don't have much of a good reputation with the Republic, and I don't think the Empire is gonna like us any better than they did. Does the name 'Varec Vaanar' mean anything to you? That's me." the person said.

"You're a smuggler of some sort...?" Kavra asked.

"Depends on who you ask... _'Smuggler', 'thief', 'convict',_ even _'killer'_ have all been applied to me at one point or another. My name has been on wanted posted in half of the Galaxy... I robbed shipments from both the Separatists and the Republic, I know what I'm doing." the person now known as 'Varec' said.

"Why are you telling us all this...?" Lak inquired.

"Because I can tell you wanna get off of Taris as fast as you can, and I can help with that. However, as you can see, I'm kinda stuck in this cramped cell... If you get me out, I'll fly us as far from this rock as I can." Varec assured.

Kavra and Lak both, needless to say, were still a little unconvinced. They looked down at Rafik and saw he was still meditating, but he gave a motion of his hand suddenly and used the Force to unlock their cell doors. Surprisingly, he also unlocked the doors next door, freeing Varec and causing Lak and Kavra to be confused. Why did he open the door for the stranger next to them?

"Why did you do that?" Kavra asked.

"We don't have much of a choice... We need to get out of here as quickly as we can, before Hondo gives us to the Empire. Let's just hope that smuggler is telling the truth..." Rafik stated.

They then heard a noise and saw Varec was now standing in the doorway to their cell. Varec was revealed to be a Zabrak, a human-like creature with small horns on their heads. This particular Zabrak was tan colored, and he was also wearing a large trench coat with some type of armor underneath. Varec smirked at them out of gratitude, even though he knew two of them were a bit suspicious of him.

"Well, you all coming? My ship is right outside... However, I need to get my crew out of their hands. One's a droid, and I've got a Mon Calamari, and some Duros. Help me get as many as you can to my ship, I'll bring you somewhere." Varec said.

"That can work... The pirates are heavily armed though, so I'm not sure if all of them will-" Rafik began.

"Don't worry about that." Varec said, cutting him off. "My guys are all locked away in another cell block, but if you use your weird Jedi powers to get their cell doors open, then we'd have backup to get to my ship." he added.

"Alright, but know that some of them might not make it. And keep the ship's engine running, because something tells me we'll need to get out of here very fast." Rafik said.

Varec nodded and hurried out of the cell block to sneak his way over to his ship. Meanwhile, the three fugitives quickly hurried down the opposite end of the hallway, seeing a door that led deeper into the pirate base... They needed to save as much of the Varec's crew as they could, before they would be in the clutches of the Empire... They hoped they could do it.

* * *

Rafik was in the lead of the three, and he cautiously stopped once he saw the hallway took a left. He poked his head out to see where it led and it appeared they were near some sort of a treasure room, but the rest of the prison cells had to be around somewhere. The three cautiously went inside the treasure room, but they had to quickly dive behind a stack of crates as a pair of guards walked in.

"-Hey, when do you think Hondo will pay us?" one of the guards asked.

"I dunno... He needs to pay up soon, though. I'm hooked on death sticks." the second guard replied.

"Sheesh... you know those can't be good for you."

Lak gave a motion of his fingers to Kavra and Rafik, signalling that he intended to take down the guards. The other two fugitives nodded in agreement, and they split up. Rafik cautiously made his way towards the second guard while Kavra and Lak were making their way towards the first.

"Yeah, I know, _'it lowers your life and stuff'_ , but the rush is fantastic."

"Whatever... When I get my share from that Jedi and his friends, I'm getting myself a new swoop bike. Y'know they used to race them professionally in the Outer Rim?"

"I wish I could say that I cared about that, but... _I don't_."

The three fugitives got in position as the first guard sat on a nearby crate, and the second guard stood in front of another. Rafik simply stood up and got the second guard in a headlock, pulling him over the crate and knocking him unconscious. Naturally, the first guard began to freak out from what he saw, but Lak grabbed him and pushed him towards Kavra, who proceeded to punch him in the face and knock him out.

Kavra rubbed her now-sore fist as Lak picked up one of the blaster rifles the guards dropped. Kavra quickly grabbed the other rifle and a nearby thermal detonator as the two saw Rafik looking around for something, but managing to soon find what he was looking for inside of a crate. _His Lightsaber._ Rafik picked up his weapon and he held it tight as he walked to the door the two guards came out of, and he signaled for Lak to kick it open. Lak readied his blaster and he proceeded to do as Rafik said and kicked the door open, where Rafik activated his Lightsaber and the three ran through the door.

...the three fugitives immediately stopped, all going wide eyed as they realized they ran right into the main hall of the base, in which dozens of heavily armed pirates were partying. The music they were playing stopped and every single pirate in the room turned to look at the fugitives, along with Hondo himself. Hondo sighed with a small amount of disappointment as he got out of his seat and approached the three fugitives, stopping a short distance away from them.

" _Jedi, Jedi,_ _Jedi..._ when will you learn? I guess this means we can't be friends after all." Hondo sarcastically told him.

"Your definition of friendship is very different from mine, Hondo..." Rafik frowned.

Almost every pirate in the room raised their blasters towards the three fugitives, but Hondo didn't aim at all. Rafik raised his Lightsaber in front of himself and prepared to defend himself, Lak aimed his blaster at a nearby pirate, and Kavra moved her hand behind her back and readied her thermal detonator, hoping the pirates wouldn't see her doing that until it was too late.

"Look, I'll make you a deal... put down your weapons, let yourselves be recaptured, and maybe I'll let you try some of this delicious Alderaanian wine." Hondo graciously offered as he showed a half-empty glass to them.

"No, we're fine." Kavra frowned.

"You sure? It's very, very good..." Hondo smirked, still showing the half empty glass.

The three fugitives were silent after that statement, and Hondo's smirk faded as he saw the three were glaring at them. Obviously, they were not in the mood for Alderaanian wine, or any type of wine for that matter... That's when an explosion occurred on the other side of the room, and it succeeded in killing a few pirates and sending several more straight to the ground. They saw a large hole was blown in a nearby wall, and the next thing they knew was that several Clone soldiers were rushing into the room and shooting at anything that moved. The three fugitives quickly dove for cover, and they accidentally ended up hiding behind a table with Hondo. The four were surprised to end up taking cover together, but no one was trying to push each other out or anything like that.

"Did you call in the Empire?!" Lak asked.

"Who else was I going to get that money from?" Hondo flatly stated.

"You nerf-herder! Do you have any idea what you did?! They'll kill all of your pirates, Hondo! The Republic might've bowed down to your threats, but did you honestly think the Empire would?!" Kavra exclaimed.

Hondo awkwardly scratched the back of his head as he took in all of that information. Maybe he should've thought it through... The Republic would easily pay, the Separatists sometimes would, but this new Empire...? Well, it was obvious they loved to shoot first and ask questions later. He probably should've thought about it.

"You're probably right about that..." Hondo sheepishly said.

"Everyone relax." Rafik frowned. "Arguments and accusations aren't going to help us here. Since the Clones are here for a Jedi, which is me, I'm going to assume they have at least one or two capital ships in orbit, and a large amount of troops heading this way. We need to leave as fast as possible." he stated.

"That Zabrak has that ship... We got to get to his crew and then we can leave!" Kavra stated.

"I'll get his crew out! You three just get to his ship!" Rafik said.

"Er... I'll just go in mine, thank you. It would be an awkward flight after I tried to collect bounties from you." Hondo shrugged.

Before the three fugitives could say anything else to him, Hondo had already ran off with his pet. The two dodged laser fire from the Clones and rejoined the pirates, where they began their defense.

"Er, right, where was I?" Rafik asked himself, using his Lightsaber to deflect laser fire from the three. "Oh, right, you two get to Varec's ship! I'll find his crew!" he said.

"Got it! Good luck!" Lak said.

Rafik covered Lak and Kavra with his Lightsaber as the two ran for the nearest exit, hoping to get to the hangar successfully. Taking out several Clones along the way with his Lightsaber, Rafik managed to get through to another exit that led towards the cell block Varec's crew was being held. He neutralized a few Clone soldiers in the cell block, and then he got to the first cell and saw the Mon Calamari hiding in the corner. He then cut open the lock on the door and helped the Mon Calamari up to his feet.

"Come on, get up! I'm a friend! We need to get to your ship!" Rafik said.

"Alright, alright! Just get the others, they're just down the hall!" the Mon Calamari exclaimed.

Rafik nodded and he hurried down the cell block, passing one empty cell after another. Where were the Duros...? He finally stopped when he got to the cell at the furthest end of the hall, and he went wide eyed with shock and disgust with what he saw... Every Duro that was a part of that Zabrak's crew were executed by the Clones, some of their wounds still smoldering from the heat of the laser fire that hit them...

He knew, however, that he couldn't stay and reflect on any of this. He needed to get that Mon Calamari out of there and to the ship as quickly as he could...

* * *

Kavra, Lak and Varec were all taking cover behind some crates in front of Varec's YT-2400 freighter. Dozens of Clones had found their position and were firing volleys of laser fire towards them, trying to eliminate this threat before killing or capturing the Jedi.

"What's your Jedi friend taking so long to get my crew?!" Varec asked as he fired his dual blaster pistols at the Clones.

"He'll be here soon! Trust me!" Lak replied, taking cover as a few lasers hit the crate he was behind.

"Oh, he'll take his time! _Sure!_ Let him go at his own pace, then!" Varec replied, his voice reeking with sarcasm and a lot of annoyance.

Finally, they saw Rafik and the Mon Calamari hurrying towards their position from a nearby exit. Rafik was using his Lightsaber to protect the Mon Calamari as they hurried over to them, and soon the two got behind a pair of crates next to the others.

"Hey, good! You got Braz! Where's the others?" Varec asked.

"Dead. The Clones executed them before I arrived..." Rafik replied.

Varec groaned with frustration, and he decided to let out that frustration by firing at the Clones again. He actually took down several of them before Lak pulled him back into cover.

"I've got a thermal detonator! I'll throw it and then we run for the ship! Hopefully the explosion will be enough to daze them for enough time!" Kavra said.

"Then do it! I don't got all day!" Varec impatiently replied.

Kavra rolled her eyes as she tried to figure out how to use the thermal detonator. After all, she was just a girl who lived on Coruscant, she didn't really have much experience with military-grade weaponry until a week or two ago. Finally, she pressed a large button on the top of the spherical explosive, seeing it was now activated. She frowned and tossed it towards the Clones who were firing at the group, and after a few seconds the room echoed with a very loud explosion, which succeeded in eliminating at least half of the Clone soldiers and sending the rest into disarray. The group wasted no time, and they quickly hurried into the freighter, in which they passed a modified green and black colored R3 astro droid with a conical-frustum style head.

"T9, get ready! We're getting out of here!" Varec said as he hurried to the cockpit.

The droid, T9, gave a series of beeps as confirmation and he hurried to find somewhere to hide, as he knew it was going to be a very bumpy ride... Varec quickly got into the cockpit with Braz and the two got in their seats, activating the ship for the first time in a couple of weeks.

"Hang on!" Varec smirked, happy to be back in the pilot's seat of his ship again.

Several more Clone soldiers hurried into the hangar and began to fire at the ship as Varec began taking off. The lasers had no effect on the tough armor as the ship finally blasted its way out of the hanger, quickly heading up towards the stratosphere and finally into space itself. There was several moments where the action was over and they thought it would be an easy escape, but they were wrong. However, Varec noticed two Venator-class Star Destroyers, which were basically massive arrowhead-shaped ships, and they appeared to be dispatching fighters to attack them.

"They're not letting us go without a fight! I've modified this ship a lot, so I've got more than one turret! You three get in them and give me enough time to prep the hyperdrive!" Varec ordered.

"Copy that! Rafik, Kavra, let's do this!" Lak said.

The three fugitives quickly ran out of the cockpit. Rafik and Kavra ran to a gunwell that led to two of the turrets, in which Rafik climbed up to the top one and Kavra climbed down to the bottom one. Lak just ran down a nearby hall and to a turret on the back of the ship, inside the cargo hold. The three were ready by the time the first wave of Imperial fighters arrived. Rafik saw they were ARC-170's, a heavy duty fighter that the Republic commonly used. He knew they would have their work cut out for them...

The three began to fire at the fighters when they began their attack runs. One of the Imperial fighters managed to get a direct hit onto the ship, causing a massive vibration to go through the hunk of junk and causing Varec to frown.

"Hey, I said keep them off of the ship!" Varec said, feeling very annoyed.

"It's not exactly easy to do this!" Kavra replied with the same amount of annoyance.

Lak smirked as he fired at a fighter coming directly towards his turret. Thankfully, this one didn't managed to hit the ship when he fired his lasers at it, but Lak fired right back at the fighter and managed to destroy it. Kavra fired at a second fighter that was coming towards her turret, and she managed to destroy it before it even got close to the ship.

"Hey, I got one!" Kavra smiled.

"Great, but don't get cocky!" Lak replied.

Rafik wasn't really used to firing from turrets, as he much preferred flying in the pilot's seat of an attack fighter. He did have training in using the turrets, but that was back when he was a Padawan, which was years ago. However, he slowly began to get the hang of it again, and he even shot down a few of the Imperial fighters before Varec got the hyperdrive up and running.

"The hyperdrive is ready! You guys better hang on!" Varec said.

The Imperial ships intensified their attack as the three fugitives defended the ship from them. Finally, Varec activated the hyperdrive, calculating a destination to another part of the Galaxy, far from Taris or Coruscant... The stars began to elongate and soon the ship went into the familiar blue tunnel which was hyperspace, quickly losing the Imperials which were on their tail...

* * *

Varec and Braz walked into the living suite of the ship, basically the place to rest or hang out as the ship traveled. The two were soon joined by T9, and then the three fugitives walked into the room after getting out of their turrets.

"Hey, we're not dead! Good job!" Varec smirked.

"Yeah, yeah... Thanks for getting us off of Taris." Lak replied with a roll of his eyes.

T9 gave a series of beeps as he approached Kavra and Rafik, causing the two of them to smile at the friendly droid.

"Hey, little guy. Nice to meet you, I'm Kavra." Kavra smiled.

"Actually, that's a good point. Introductions, right? Well, you know me, and the Mon Calamari is my friend Braz Meddo, and that's my astro droid, T9-E2. Right now you're standing in my ship, the _'Eagle's Pride_ '. I don't mean to brag, but she's the fastest ship in this sector of the Galaxy." Varec explained.

"Impressive..." Rafik replied, looking back up at the smugglers. "My name's Rafik Thul. I was a Jedi Knight until a few weeks ago, when the Empire invaded the Jedi Temple. I got saved by Kavra Locke, the Twi'lek, and then we ran into Lak. His inhibitor chip broke in a scuffle and now he doesn't want to murder me anymore." he explained with a shrug.

Varec nodded and went to a nearby Dejarik table, a holographic game with two players controlling monsters. He didn't play the game at the moment and instead just leaned against the table, crossing his arms and smirking at the fugitives.

"Well, I'd like to make you an offer... See, we're all on the run from the Empire, and if they find us then they'd kill us. All of my crew aside from Braz and T9 are dead, and I've got some positions on this ship I need filled... So, would you three like to become crewmates on my ship?" Varec offered.

"What, and become smugglers? Criminals? That seems low..." Lak frowned.

"I'd prefer the term _'freedom fighter_ ', or _'rebel'_ or something. But yeah, _'smugglers'_ seems fair enough." Varec shrugged.

Kavra, Rafik and Lak all looked at each other. None of them wanted to become criminals or smugglers, but their entire lives were uprooted and changed forever. Could they be comfortable becoming thieves? Although they would hopefully do some good in the Galaxy...

"I'm not one hundred percent on board with this..." Lak stated.

"If you want, I could ditch you with one of the escape pods and you could land on one of the backwater worlds around here." Varec offered. "Look, I don't steal from the poor or the needy, and I don't go on rampages or kill people who don't deserve it, so if you're worried about any of that then don't be." he added.

"Lak, come on..." Rafik said, placing a hand on his shoulder to help reassure him. "It's not like we can go back to the Jedi, or the Grand Army of the Republic. We need to adapt to survive now..." he added.

Lak took a few moments to think it all over. He was a soldier, he had a high sense of honor... But when your former comrades were shooting at you, it'd probably make you change opinion as well. Rob the rich to give to the needy? It seemed like the right thing to do... he just hoped it wouldn't backfire.

"Alright... I'll do it. For now, at least." Lak said.

"I'm in as well. I can't ever go back to Coruscant, but I'll stay and try my best to help." Kavra added.

"And I'll do this as well... I may need to put up my Lightsaber for a while, though. It's too dangerous to be seen with one." Rafik said.

Varec was happy to hear all of this. True, he could've just randomly found some people in a cantina somewhere to be his new crew, but he doubt he would've found anyone with the level of experience the three fugitives had. The Twi'lek might need some training, but the Jedi and the Clone were good additions bar none. With a smirk, Varec began heading back to the cockpit, but he turned to look back at the group.

"I'm glad you chose this. Welcome to the Eagle's Pride." Varec said.

Braz followed Varec to the cockpit as T9 simply began wandering around the ship. The three fugitives simply stood where they were, struggling to get used to the idea that they were now smugglers... Hopefully the Eagle's Pride could be a good home for them. Hopefully the Empire would always stay two steps behind them. Hopefully they will manage to do at least a little bit of good for the Galaxy...

Their adventures were just beginning.


	8. Chapter 8, The Holy City

_**Chapter Eight: "The Holy City"**_

* * *

It had been seventeen years after the rise of the Galactic Empire. A wave of tyranny unlike any other has fallen upon the entire Galaxy. To many people, hope was lost, and many have begun to give up... However, there was also many who were tired of the evil Empire, and there was some who were willing to fight and die for the freedom of the Galaxy.

One such group was the crew of the Eagle's Pride, a smuggling vessel that operated throughout the known Galaxy. The fugitives on board the vessel all spent the last seventeen years causing a bit of mischief for the Empire. Stealing cargo, attacking Imperial convoys, disrupting operations on Imperial worlds... things like that, mostly. However, the Eagle's Pride had to also keep a much lower profile than other rebel groups, and they usually had to flee immediately after any of their acts... But why did they need to do that? The reason was very simple...

They had a Jedi Knight aboard.

Jedi have been hunted almost to extinction in the years following the establishment of the Empire. The crew even occasionally heard rumors of a Jedi who was killed, or a planet being put under harsh Imperial rule for harboring a Jedi. They even heard of an entire _group_ of Jedi who were killed on Kessel by one of the Emperor's minions, although they didn't know which one. However, the Jedi who was on board the ship was much more cautious than he was seventeen years ago when Order 66 came down. A little age and a hint of wisdom were beginning to catch up to him. The Jedi had to use multiple different names so as to keep ahead of the Empire, just like everyone else on the ship. But back during the days of the Republic, he was known as "Rafik Thul."

"Hey, Rafik! Can you come in here?" he heard a voice ask.

Rafik sighed since he was right in the middle of tinkering with the hyperdrive of the ship. Honestly, it seemed like half the time he was working on something someone needed him for something else. He walked through a few areas of the ship before he got to the cockpit, where he found a couple of his friends.

"Yeah, what is it?" Rafik asked.

The pilot was Varec Vaanar, a famous pirate and smuggler throughout the Galaxy. He appeared to be very concentrated as he flew, as he knew they were somewhere in Imperial space. The co-pilot was Braz Meddo, a former royal guard for the king of Mon Cala, Lee-Char. Rafik looked out of the front window of the ship and he noticed that they were approaching the gas planet of NaJedha, but that's not where they were going. Their destination was the moon of Jedha, specifically to the Imperial-occupied Holy City on it.

"We're here... I'd tell the others. I'll land us on the landing pad in the city, just like we planned." Varec said.

"Alright, good. I'll get the cargo ready and we'll deliver it all to the site outside of the city." Rafik replied with a nod.

"Good. Your little 'rebel contacts' are here, right?" Varec asked.

"Yeah, the contacts are here. Although I'm not exactly sure how willing they'd be to help another rebel cell." Rafik replied.

Varec nodded at that and he and Braz began to bring the Eagle's Pride into Jedha's atmosphere, going in to land at one of the platforms at the Holy City. As they did that, Rafik began to walk though the ship and inspect it to make sure nothing was going to fall over when they landed. While he did that, he found another crewmate in the ship's workshop who was named "Lak". Lak was an aged former Clone soldier who tried to execute Rafik and Kavra shortly after Order 66 occurred, but he was rehabilitated after a scuffle broke the inhibitor chip that was in the back of his head. Lak was busy tinkering on the two 74-Z speeder bikes they had, along with some devices and blasters belonging to the crew. It was a hobby Lak loved and he was very good at making and modifying things. The old Clone looked up at Rafik and smiled a bit, setting down a rifle he was working on at the moment.

"What is it?" Lak asked.

"We're gonna be landing in the Holy City of Jedha in a few minutes, just wanted to let you know. There's a large Imperial presence on the planet as well." Rafik informed.

"Bucketheads, eh? They're idiots." Lak sighed while shaking his head. "You need me to help with the delivery to those contacts of yours? Or you think you guys can handle it?" he asked.

"We can handle it I think. Honestly, I'd like you to keep an eye on Varec. Make sure he doesn't gamble away our ship or anything." Rafik joked.

"Gotcha." Lak replied with a chuckle as he picked up his rifle again, resuming to tinker it some more.

Rafik then left Lak to his work and he went over to the rear of the ship and to the cargo hold, where he found another crewmate. Her name was "Kavra Locke", a Twi'lek who inadvertently saved Rafik's life when Order 66 occurred. Rafik casually leaned in the doorway to the cargo hold, watching as Kavra was examining crates that contained a shipment of Imperial weapons that were stolen from an Imperial ship near Sullust, and the crew was hoping to get these weapons to any rebel cell they could find. Thankfully they found one that agreed to meet them on Jedha...

"Those weapons ready to be used?" Rafik asked.

"Yeah, batteries are fully charged on all of them. One of the E-11's was jammed when we got it, but I managed to fix it." Kavra replied with a shrug.

"Those things aren't reliable. Honestly, that paired with the Stormtrooper helmets make it obvious why they can't shoot straight." Rafik said with a roll of his eyes.

Kavra and Rafik heard a series of beeps and they turned to see the ship's astro droid, T9-E2, heading into the cargo hold. The green and black droid was apparently very annoyed at something, as the first thing he did was roll right into Kavra's leg, causing her to hiss and pull her leg off from under one of his heavy metal legs.

"OW! Hey, what gives?!" Kavra frowned, rubbing her sore shin.

T9 beeped quite a lot, and the beeps were very audible... Something had ticked him off. Thankfully the crew knew managed to learn how to understand his normally-incoherent beeps, so Rafik and Kavra understood him completely. There was a LOT of vulgar words he was saying to the two of them...

"What? You're angry about that? Look, I'm sorry, but how was I supposed to know you were in the middle of your oil bath? I needed you to man the freight elevator! Besides, I don't know any other droids who get self-conscious about an oil bath." Kavra shrugged.

Rafik nodded in agreement with Kavra. "That's a good point, I've never met any droid who can get angry like that. Well, aside from one R2 unit from back in the Clone Wars, but-"

T9 cut Rafik off by rolling onto his right foot, causing him to hiss and yank his leg away from the angry droid. Kavra was close to just shutting him down for a few hours but he soon quickly dashed away from the two smugglers, leaving them annoyed and in a small amount of pain. The Eagle's Pride soon came in for a landing in the Holy City after getting clearance from an Imperial control tower. They were assigned to land on a civilian landing pad that had Imperial guards, but they figured they knew a way to sneak the weapons into the city. Rafik and Kavra soon went back up to the cockpit as Varec and Braz finally landed, then they shut down the controls to save power. The group was deeply surprised to see a large Imperial Star Destroyer was hovering above the city, which signified that there was a great deal of Imperials present. This wouldn't be easy...

"We good to go?" Rafik asked.

"Yeah, go get the crates. One of the contacts will come out to meet us outside the city, but he may or may not have friends with him." Varec warned.

"Is the contact going to give us a signal or something?"

"We're not sure. Just keep an eye out for any people acting a bit... different, I guess."

Kavra and Rafik could immediately tell that there wasn't really a plan for all of this. Sneaking a bunch of stolen weapons through an Imperial-occupied city to bring to a group of rebels? What could go wrong...?

* * *

The freight elevator for the ship lowered onto the landing pad. Rafik, Kavra and T9 were with the shipment and Varec and Braz stayed with the ship. The three soon saw an Imperial officer walking towards them flanked by two Stormtroopers. They had forged papers that should allow them to gain entrance to the city, but would it be enough?

"Hold there, show me your identification." the Imperial officer ordered.

"Sure, got it right here. I've got a shipment of moof hides that we're supposed to deliver to the market." Kavra lied as she handed the forged papers to the officer.

Rafik had a blaster hidden under the jacket he was wearing so he cautiously reached his hand under his jacket, but he hoped he wouldn't need to use it. He watched the officer examine the documents for several moments as if he knew something was wrong. Thankfully though, the officer couldn't figure out anything was wrong with the papers, and he soon returned them to Kavra after signing his signature to authenticate them.

"Everything seems to be in order, you may proceed." the Imperial officer replied.

Kavra and Rafik both gave a nod as a reply and Rafik moved his hand out of his jacket, thanking the Force that this didn't get bloody. T9 followed close to the two fugitives as their cargo was loaded onto a small cargo landspeeder they rented, and soon they got inside and were on their way through the streets of the Holy City of Jedha. The three had to be extremely cautious, as they had no idea what to expect on the streets of this Imperial-occupied moon. The city was lively and full of many beings even during the Imperial occupation. It may have been harsh, but many people still called Jedha their home. Kavra was looking around as Rafik drove, and she saw there was a very tall building in the city. She could tell it was easily the tallest structure in the city.

"What's that place...?" Kavra asked out of curiosity.

"I'm not very familiar with Jedha, but I think I heard of a group who called themselves the _'Guardians of the Whills'_ , and they had a giant temple. That's probably it." Rafik replied.

"They religious? A cult?"

"Yeah, something like that. They worship the Force, but they're not Jedi. They hoarded the same kind of crystals that we used to make our Lightsabers... from the look of things it seems the Empire is taking the crystals for some reason..."

Kavra noticed what Rafik saw: Many Imperial cargo ships were going back and forth from the Star Destroyer... why would the Empire want a bunch of crystals? Did the Emperor suddenly feel like collecting or something?

"That's very strange... I wonder why the Empire wants those crystals?" Kavra asked.

"No idea, but we can't investigate right now. These blasters need to get to the rebel cell here." Rafik replied.

T9 beeped in confirmation as Kavra kept looking around. She loved seeing new planets and new people and new places, it was pretty fun. She always wanted to be an explorer ever since her childhood on Ryloth, and now she was living that dream. In any event they had to stop the speeder as the Imperials had blocked off some streets inside the city.

"Damn... I was afraid they'd have roads blocked off." Rafik frowned.

"Any other routes we can take, T9?" Kavra asked.

T9 beeped in confirmation and he showed the two a holographic map of the city. It showed the road they were on and he calculated several detours that could help them arrive at their destination outside of the city. They found a good route and they soon resumed driving, taking a right and heading away from the blocked street. They had to go through a very crowded area full of people and alien creatures, but they managed to get through all of it without getting robbed or anything.

"You two! The ones with the droid and the speeder! May the Force be with you!" they suddenly heard a voice ask.

Rafik and Kavra blinked with surprise and Rafik soon stopped the speeder on the side of the road. The two looked around and though the crowds of people they saw a man sitting on a chair, but even though he was facing several people he wasn't talking to them. Kavra had the strangest urge to speak with the man as she got out of the speeder. Rafik was surprised by this, so he turned off the engine for the time being and then turned to look at T9.

"Hey, keep an eye on everything." Rafik said.

T9 beeped in confirmation as Rafik climbed out of the landspeeder. As he did that, Kavra was approaching closer and closer to the strange man, and as she did she noticed he had a large staff with him. There was something strange about this man that she couldn't put her finger on... She suddenly realized it as that he was blind.

"Twi'lek, human, droid... You three and your friends have a purpose here... But you're not friends of the Imperials?" the blind man asked.

"What's it to you...?" Rafik cautiously asked.

"I feel the Force flowing through us all... A Jedi like yourself can feel it radiating too, huh?"

"How do you know that I'm a Jedi?"

"The Force shines bright inside you. That's all I need to know..."

Kavra was still very suspicious about this man, but Rafik silently acknowledged the fact that this man knew the Force very well. He may have been one of the Guardians of the Whills, but he doubted he was a Jedi like himself. They soon saw a large man appear in a doorway behind the blind man with a large blaster, and he also had an annoyed look on his face.

"Chirrut, c'mon!" the man said.

The blind man, Chirrut, stood up from his seat and picked up his staff. He was about to leave but he suddenly stopped and turned to look back at Kavra and Rafik, and soon a small smile formed on his face.

"I need to go with Baze somewhere, but good luck on your journey. May the Force be with you." Chirrut smiled at the fugitives.

The fugitives watched as Chirrut walked over to Baze and the two walked back through the doorway, heading off somewhere. Kavra and Rafik both decided to just simply get back to their cargo speeder and keep going, as they still had a schedule to keep. These weapons were critically important for the rebel cell they were going to meet...


	9. Chapter 9, Special Delivery

_**Chapter Nine: "Special Delivery"**_

* * *

Kavra kept a watchful eye as Rafik and T9 unloaded the weapon crates from their cargo speeder. It took a bit of effort since Rafik didn't use the Force much in recent years, as he didn't want to risk anyone seeing that and reporting there was a living Jedi on the run. He still did have a few Lightsabers of course, but mainly they just gathered dust in his bunk on the Eagle's Pride. He always did keep one with him in two separate pieces, of course, just for safety reasons...

T9 rotated his head to look behind him and he started beeping in alarm, causing Kavra and Rafik to look and see what was wrong. It turned out that it was nothing serious, as it was just T9 alerting them that the rebel contacts were fast approaching. They could see they were about a mile away and coming in on their speeders very fast with a small dust cloud behind them from the speed. Rafik and Kavra unloaded a few more crates before the buyers would arrive, and pretty soon the remaining weapon crates were on the ground and ready for delivery. It was a total of eleven individuals who parked their speeders a short distance away and who began approaching the fugitives, all made of different species. Six were humans, but there was also a Neimoidian and a couple of the blue-skinned Chiss. There was also one onyx-colored protocol droid. One of the humans walked straight over to the crates so as to inspect the cargo, and the Neimoidian walked straight up to Rafik and Kavra.

"Everything here?" the Neimoidian asked.

"Yeah, all of the blasters you want are here. Even added a few thermal detonators for your trouble and because of the delay." Rafik replied.

"Good, very good. This all will be very useful in our future operations against the Empire." the Neimoidian replied as he gestured to the others in his group. The rest of the humans went to help gather the crates as the Chiss kept watch with their blasters for security.

Kavra crossed her arms and cautiously eyes the other group as Rafik did the same. This was another rebel cell, just like their own. They didn't really personally know most of the other cells but they did hear many exploits from some, such as a few on Lothal, Reklam Station and Ryloth. But they also knew the Empire was giving them all a hard time lately, and many sectors were hunting down rebels to the best of their abilities... but they were stories for another day, hopefully. Soon the cargo was all loaded onto the other group's speeders, and the Neimoidian handed Rafik a large case full of the credits he was promised for this delivery.

"Pleasure to do business with you. Good luck out there." the Neimoidian said.

"Yeah, you too. Stay safe." Rafik nodded.

The Neimoidian smiled at the fugitives before he and the others went back to their speeders, and pretty soon the other rebel cell was long gone. The two fugitives breathed a large sigh of relief and Rafik opened the case, setting it on the hood of their cargo speeder so he can check if they got the correct amount of credits. Thankfully they did, and it appeared that none of the credits were counterfeit.

"Seems like it's been weeks since we made any profits..." Rafik commented.

"I thought the same thing... The Empire isn't giving us much breathing room in this quadrant of the Galaxy. It also seems like Star Destroyers are everywhere..." Kavra replied.

"Hopefully Fulcrum can help us with getting more contacts somewhere, maybe get us in touch with another rebel cell. Didn't Varec also say something about that mining city on Bespin? That contract there?"

"Yes, but-"

Suddenly they heard a loud explosion come in from afar. The fugitives and T9 quickly turned their gaze to the direction the other rebel cell left in, seeing that there was smoke rising in the distance. Something bad happened to their convoy. The two quickly hurried back into their cargo speeder and decided to go and check on whatever happened over there, and they drove as fast as they could.

"What the hell is going on?!" Rafik asked as he began readying his blaster.

"No idea! T9, contact Varec and the ship's communication system! Let them know that we might need a ride out of here and fast!" Kavra ordered.

T9 beeped in confirmation and he began trying to contact Varec's communicator and also the communication system on the Eagle's Pride. The fugitives had no idea what was attacking the other rebels, but they hoped that Varec was ready to listen...

* * *

Varec was busy with Braz drinking in some cantina on Jedha. They knew Rafik wanted them with the ship and they would definitely stay there for the most part, but they really wanted to have some fun and to have a few drinks for just a few hours. Was that too much to ask? Lak was busy, and by busy it meant that he was in the middle of ' _socializing'_ with a pretty human girl in one of the back rooms, so they definitely had some time to kill either way. Varec's communication suddenly beeped in alarm, but he brushed it off and set it on off mode for the moment.

"Why'd you do that?" Braz asked before he kept drinking some strange Mon Calamari drink that was in his glass.

"Eh, I don't want to lift more crates. Besides, I'm sure they got it under control. If they run into trouble then they got their blasters, and if they just need help with crates... well, I'm sure our friendly neighborhood former Jedi Knight can figure something out with the Force." Varec shrugged, taking another swig.

"Yeah, those blasters are pretty heavy... Reminds me of the cargo we got on Crait. Do you remember all of that mess? I threw my back out for weeks."

"Or how about the job on Hosnian Prime? Those weird animals in the crates?"

"Yes, and how those things almost killed T9? Poor droid got thrown down a hallway!"

The two smugglers were silent for a moment before they shared a laugh. After another moment Lak had finally came back to their table, straightening his belt and sitting down on a free stool while fixing his graying hair. He awkwardly cleared his throat and relaxed on the stool, spying an extra drink on the table that he quickly snatched.

"What're you guys talking about?" Lak asked.

"Nothing, just reminiscing. How was that _'social call'_ of yours?" Braz joked.

Lak gave a sarcastic laugh as a reply to Braz, then quickly drank the contents of his cup. That's when a pair of human men walked over to their table with a large and metal circular object, both of them cockily smirking.

"You guys look like you're having a good time." one of the men commented.

"Yeah, what's it to you?" Varec asked, setting his feet on the table and crossing them, showing that it was taken.

"Well, nothing really. Just wanted to play a little Sabacc with some people, but we're not very good at it. Wanna join us?" the man asked, gesturing down to his Sabacc table. Sabacc was a card game that was commonly played in many places in the Galaxy, but it was very risky. Lak already knew this, so he just scarfed down the rest of his drink and stood up, wiping off his mouth.

"I'm gonna head back to the ship. Play if you want, but I refuse to be anywhere near that if bets are happening." Lak commented.

Unfortunately, Varec and Braz were massive fans of the game, and they commonly played it wherever and whenever they could. It had gotten the crew in a few situations before, and one noticeable example was where Braz gambled away one of Rafik's lightsabers. Naturally the former Jedi Knight wasn't happy and it took quite a while to get it back, and Braz had to do a lot of work to make up for it.

"Are you seriously going to play that crummy game again?" Lak bluntly asked.

"What? It's a fun game!" Varec defended.

Lak shrugged as a reply and he decided to not get involved more than he already had. Honestly, he just hoped they wouldn't do anything stupid during that game, and he would have stayed to make sure but he had to go tinker on the ship's hyperdrive some more. He had soon left the cantina and left the Sabacc players at the table. Varec and Braz, meanwhile, pulled some credits out of their pockets and readied to gamble with these two strangers... what was the worst that could happen?

* * *

Kavra quickly parked the speeder when they got to the scene of the rebel convoy. T9 got himself off of the speeder and began scanning the area as Rafik and Kavra readied their blasters, then proceeded to get out as well. It was obvious that it was a devastating attack, as all of the other speeders were destroyed. They noticed that most of the rebels were dead, but a few were noticeably missing.

"What happened here...?" Kavra asked as she looked at the smoking ruins of the speeders.

"No idea, but it can't be good... T9, do you detect any Imperials in the vicinity?" Rafik asked.

T9 was silent for several moments before he gave a series of beeps as a reply, meaning that he indeed find evidence of this being an Imperial attack of some sorts. Rafik and Kavra kept looking around and searched a couple of the bodies, trying to find more evidence and other information. Many of the blast marks seemed suspicious as well... Stormtroopers were never this accurate, at least in their personal opinions.

"This is strange... The blast marks are very accurate, way more accurate than the average Stormtrooper... Maybe some sort of a bounty hunter? Imperial Special Forces?" Kavra pointed out.

"Can't rule out those possibilities... Keep an eye out, but-"

That's when T9 shrieked in alarm, causing Kavra and Rafik to hurriedly take the droid and take cover behind a destroyed speeder that was laying on its side. They were lucky to do that as a volley of blaster fire rained down towards their position. Rafik tried to look around the speeder with his blaster ready, but one shot hit right near his head and caused him to quickly get back in cover.

"Are they actually Stormtroopers?" Kavra asked.

"I don't think so... Far too accurate. Almost blew my damn head off..." Rafik replied.

Kavra and Rafik aimed their blaster around the overturned speeder and began blind firing at whoever was shooting at them. They heard a couple of screams, so they knew they took down at least one of the enemy shooters.

"You think these are the same people who attacked the other rebels?" Kavra asked.

"I'd wager on it... Whoever these guys are they're certainly combat trained. I'd definitely say they're Imperials, probably special forces like you said..." Rafik replied as he kept firing.

"There's a lot of blasters firing at us... We're definitely outnumbered. What do you think we should do?"

"Well, _shooting back_ might be a great start..."

Kavra scoffed and rolled her eyes, struggling not to give a smile at that. A bunch of sass wouldn't get them out of this situation.

"Very funny sweetie." Kavra replied with a hint of sarcasm as she fired some more shots from her blaster.

"I try." Rafik shrugged with a smile as he also began to fire some more shots.

The two looked out from behind the overturned speeder and could see that they were indeed inflicting some casualties onto whoever was shooting at them, as a couple of the shooters were dead and others were being dragged away due to being wounded. But suddenly the attackers stopped shooting at them, causing the fugitives to be surprised. And then smoke started to envelop the area, causing their line of sight to disappear. What was going on...? The two kept poking their heads out from behind the speeder and cautiously looked around, but they saw the shooters were nowhere in sight... Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong...

"Where did they go...?" Rafik asked himself.

He stepped out from the cover he had and he raised his blaster, and he even took out the other one he had in his second holster just to be safe. Kavra soon came out of the cover and the two cautiously looked around for trouble, and soon they could hear distant footsteps.

"Who's there?! I demand that you show yourselves!" Rafik frowned.

The fugitives heard more footsteps that sounded much closer, causing the two to ready their weapons for whatever came next. They were surprised when the onyx protocol droid from the other rebel group suddenly walked out from behind the smoke, and the droid hurriedly put his hands up with surprise when he saw the blasters aimed at him. It looked like he was the only survivor of the attack...

"Don't shoot! I am merely a protocol droid!" the droid exclaimed.

"Get out of the way then!" Rafik frowned.

The protocol droid hurriedly walked away from the scene since he couldn't run, and the fugitives lowered their weapons for the moment. The Imperials that attacked this place may have been gone for now, or were perhaps regrouping for another attack. They still kept their weapons unholstered as they weren't taking any chances. A thermal detonator landed a short distance away, causing the fugitives to go wide eyed. Rafik quickly ran to the thermal detonator and grabbed it before he tossed it as far from them as he could, and it soon exploded a far distance from them but unfortunately didn't faze their attackers. The two dived back for cover with T9 as they began to be shot at yet again. Nope, it seemed the Imperials weren't gone yet...

"You two! Stay right where you are! We are going to move in and place you under arrest on authority of the Galactic Empire!" they heard a woman call out to them. "You are charged among other things with acts of open rebellion against the authority of Emperor Palpatine, sedition, theft, larceny, murder of Imperial personnel, damage and destruction of Imperial property, illegal smuggling, piracy, hijacking and acts of treason against our glorious Empire! You are to be placed in our custody and your droid destroyed! If you resist then you'll both be _executed_!"

"Fat chance!" Kavra tauntingly called back.

"If you resist then we will be forced to use deadly force! This is your final warning, rebel scum! Lay down your blasters and submit to Imperial authority!"

" _Go to hell!"_

Several moments of silence followed that, and Kavra and Rafik knew that they were probably in for a long fight. Probably. That's when a soldier in black Imperial armor launched himself with a jetpack and landed a short distance behind the three. He aimed a pair of blasters at the trio, but Kavra and Rafik were faster and they unloaded a volley of shots at the soldier, killing him instantly. Another black armored Imperial soldier tried to rush up to them, but Kavra made sure that a quick blaster shot to the chest finished this soldier off as well. Rafik could see that their speeder wasn't too far away, but the main problem was that they certainly would be shot before they could make it even halfway. They had to do something...

"We need to get to our speeder!" Rafik stated.

"I agree, but it's easier said than done!" Kavra retorted.

"T9! Has the Eagle's Pride made contact with us?"

T9 gave a series of low beeps, meaning that he had not heard a single word from the Eagle's Pride or the others. They were certainly going to be there for a while unless they got a ride out of there... The two fugitives and the loyal droid could only wait and hope that Varec, Braz or Lak pick up the communicator soon...

* * *

Lak had made it back to the Eagle's Pride and he quickly boarded it, intending to head straight for his room so he could resume working on one of the many things he usually had on his workshop table. He had just sat down on his chair when the communicator on the ship started to beep, signaling that someone was trying to contact them. Lak, who was looking forward to tinkering with his projects, had a large feeling of annoyance as he stood back up from the chair and began walking out of his room and towards the cockpit.

"Always, _always_ when I'm working on something!" Lak muttered to himself, very irritated.

The aged Clone soldier grumbled to himself a bit more as he walked into the cockpit. Before he answered the communicator, he took his time as he crouched down to fix one of his boots as it felt a little bit loose, and then he checked on a few things within the cockpit. Finally he answered the communicator with a yawn, then crossed his arms as he correctly assumed it was Rafik or Kavra calling.

"Something wrong? Delivery go well?" Lak asked.

"Finally, someone picks up!" Kavra replied with a hint of annoyance. Scratch that, a LOT of annoyance... something was definitely going on over there.

"Lak, you need to get Varec and Braz! We got ambushed by Imperials! We need a way out of here, and now!" Rafik said.

 _"What?!"_ Lak asked as he went wide eyed. "I thought that deal wasn't going to be known to them? How in the hell did they find you guys?!"

"I've got no idea, but we need to get out of here as quickly as possible! We've taken out a few of the Imperials but there's still plenty more!"

"Alright, alright! I'll get them and we'll get you guys out of there!"

"Make it quick, Lak!"

Lak didn't waste any time. The aged Clone ran out of the cockpit as fast as he possibly could, then ran down the entrance ramp of the ship and across the landing pad the Eagle's Pride rested on. This act drew the attention of several Stormtroopers, causing a couple to run after the old man.

"Hey! Stop right there!" a Stormtrooper ordered.

"Sorry! No can do!" Lak sarcastically called back as he ran.

Two of the Stormtroopers began to begin a chase after Lak, and the old man frowned a bit when he saw the Stormtroopers were indeed going to try and arrest him. He resumed running and eventually made it to some sort of a bazaar, but the Stormtroopers were still after him. Lak turned to look back at the troopers and saw they were getting closer, and as they were running they were also pushing several people out of the way to try and catch up to him. One of them even pushed a small child straight into a gutter, and an old woman straight into a pile of crates! That did it for Lak. _NO ONE_ would get hurt because of him! The grizzled old Clone hitched a right and headed straight into a nearby alleyway that looked pretty discrete, but the alleyway ended and led absolutely nowhere aside from a dead-end. The two Stormtroopers hitched a right as well and ran straight into the alleyway to try and arrest and/or execute the old man, but the two were suddenly stopped in shock when they realized that Lak was already facing them in a crouching stance... and that he had two DC-17 blaster pistols aimed right at them.

"Tough luck, mates." Lak said as he gave a small smirk to the two Imperial soldiers.

The two Stormtroopers raised their blasters to try and kill Lak before he would fire, but the Clone, old as he was, was still much faster than these bucketheads. By the time the troopers set their sights on him they had a pair of matching smoldering chest wounds thanks to Lak's blasters. The troopers then dropped their guns after they were hit and they crumbled dead onto the ground, causing Lak to smirk a bit more and holster his weapons. As many civilians arrived to watch the scene, Lak began to resume his running to the bar before more Stormtroopers would arrive. He just wanted Varec and Braz to be ready to get Kavra, Locke and T9 before they would be killed... hopefully the two pilots weren't wasted or still playing Sabaac...

He hoped he would have enough time...


	10. Chapter 10, Imperial Entanglements

_**Chapter Ten: "Imperial Entanglements."**_

* * *

Lak hurried straight to the bar that Varec and Braz were at. He ran right through the front doors and down a flight of stairs, hurrying past groups of people and rushing down a hallway until he made it into the large main room. His eyes widened when he immediately saw that some sort of a bar fight had broken out and almost every single person in the bar was fighting at that moment, including Braz and Varec.

The old Clone made his way through the fighting patrons, and he even had to stop and punch one or two who tried to charge at him. By some sort of a miracle he managed to get through all of this and make it straight to the other two fugitives, who were back to back on top of a large table and armed with chairs as they defended themselves against a bar full of hostile people.

"What in the name of the mother of moons is going on in here?! What the hell did you two do this time?!" Lak demanded to know as he climbed up on the table so as to be slightly safer from the fighting, bringing his back to their sides and bringing his fists up just to be safe..

"Oh, _funny story_!" Varec replied with a small smirk, stopping for a second to hit a Rodian in the face with his metal chair when he got too close, then doing the same to a charging human when he also got far too close for comfort. Both were sent to the floor pretty quick thanks to that and Varec brought his attention back to Lak.

"So, apparently there's no rule in Sabaac that says you're allowed to have one of those cheater chip things up your sleeve!" Varec continued. "They found the damn thing that Braz had and they got really angry, and soon they just started fighting us! But one thing led to another and then half of the bar started fighting too! Then the other half ran off! Thanks a _LOT_ for this one, Braz!" he said with sarcasm and a roll of his eyes.

"Hey, it works all the time! I didn't think they'd get so angry about it! Besides, it was hidden pretty well!" Braz retorted, punching an Ithorian who tried to hit him and sending him flying until he landed on a nearby table, unconscious.

"Obviously not well enough!" Varec retorted as he kicked away another Rodian who tried to grab his arm.

"Whatever! We need to get out of here! Rafik and Kavra are in trouble! Imperial troops found them and they're pinned down outside the city!" Lak replied as he pulled his twin blasters from their holsters, setting them on stun.

Varec was about to reply to that statement when one of the bar patrons managed to grab Varec's chair and yank him down to the floor, where two other patrons quickly pounced on him and proceeded to and kick and punch him repeatedly. Lak and Braz saw this however, so Braz threw his chair at one of the patrons and knocked him over whereas Lak shot the others with his pistols, knocking them out since they were on stun mode. The two fugitives quickly helped Varec up to his feet, and after making sure he was thankfully uninjured they hurried for the exit to try and get back to the Eagle's Pride.

"Hey, watch out!" Braz called out to Varec.

Varec readied his blasters on stun and turned, but that's when he was hit right in the face by a chair that was thrown across the room by... well, who knows. A lot of things were bring thrown by a _lot_ of people by that point. Varec dropped the blasters and landed flat on the ground. That was absolutely going to leave a mark...

"Why do _I_ always get hit?!" Varec exclaimed with annoyance.

"Oh, suck it up!" Lak sarcastically exclaimed as a retort, frowning as he aimed his blasters straight at the person who sent Varec to the floor.

Lak fired twice and stunned the person that hit Varec as Braz hurriedly helped the Zabrak up to his feet again and picked up the two fallen blasters, and the three fugitives then quickly hurried for the exit. They had to stun and punch several more people on the way out, but by some miracle they managed to get out of the mess and back onto the streets. Unfortunately it was soon apparent that someone contacted the Imperials and told them of the bar fight, as a large group of Stormtroopers were hurrying towards their position in order to go in and restore order.

"Run! The bucketheads are coming!" Braz exclaimed to the other two with him.

The Stormtroopers soon noticed the three fugitives that were beginning to run from them, signaling to them that they had something to do with the fight that broke out. A Stormtrooper Captain noticed the trio and he proceeded to begin running after them, readying his blaster as he did.

"Alpha Squad, Charlie Squad, Echo Squad, you all secure this cantina and get the citizens back under control! Shoot to kill if you must!" the Captain ordered in a gruff voice. "Beta Squad, Delta Squad, you all are with me! _Get those fugitives!_ " he also added.

Several Stormtroopers began to run into the cantina with the intent on restoring order as the rest followed the Stormtrooper commander after the fugitives, who proceeded to run down a crowded street in an effort to try and lose the Stormtroopers. The fugitives hurried through the crowds but the Stormtroopers were right on their trail, so they had to think of something and think of it fast!

"Any ideas?!" Braz asked.

"I think I have a couple!" Lak replied.

"Whatever you're planning, do it quick!" Varec added.

The group resumed their sprint as the Stormtroopers kept up their chase. The fugitives hurried through another crowd of people whereas the Stormtroopers simply pushed them out of the way, and soon the three jumped over a small wall and kept up their sprint. They saw that a door was open on a nearby home and the three, with no other plans, simply ran inside the house and shut the door behind them, locking it. The three saw that a small family was inside that was composed of a mother, father and two children.

The fugitives silently put their fingers on their lips in an effort to signal to the family to stay quiet. Thankfully, as there was already no love for the Empire amongst many of the citizens of Jedha, the family simply nodded and agreed to stay silent for the fugitives. The group of Stormtroopers cautiously approached the street in which this house was on, but after several moments the Stormtroopers walked past the house and kept moving, much to the relief of the fugitives and the family inside.

"I think we're in the clear... They'll still be looking for us though. We need to get back to the ship." Lak pointed out as he glanced out of some half-closed window blinds, watching the Stormtroopers walking away.

" _Karabast..._ they're probably gonna impound the Eagle's Pride as soon as they figure out who we are! We need to get back to her!" Varec growled as he holstered his blasters. No one was gonna take away his ship if HE had anything to say about it!

"Keep it down, Varec!" Braz retorted with a glare, knowing the family was already scared enough.

"He's right. We need to get to the Pride before the Empire decides to lock up the entire city. Otherwise we're never getting out of here..." Lak stated as he backed away from the window, also holstering his blasters.

That's when the father in the family cleared his throat and shakily stood up, looking at the fugitives and gaining their attention.

"I can help you with that." the father said.

"How?" Braz asked.

"I work in the landing zones to help unload cargo for the Empire... I- I can at least get you through one of the side entrances and maybe even to your ship. If I help you, will you promise to help me and my family get off-world...?" the father asked.

The three fugitives looked at each other thoughtfully before they all nodded in agreement, then looked back at the father and his family.

"Of course. If you help get us to our ship, we'll bring you wherever you all want to go." Lak replied.

"Where are we taking you guys?" Varec asked.

"We have some relatives who are living on Alderaan and I have a brother living on Corellia, but we'll be happy no matter where you take us. This occupation has brought so much hardship and pain upon us... We just want to go somewhere far from here..." the father replied.

Varec backed away and decided to peek out of the front window as the others talked. He went wide eyed as he noticed a new squad of Stormtroopers were down the street and proceeding to kick in the doors of every house they came across in a search for himself, Lak and Braz. He unholstered his blaster again and quickly hurried back to the group.

"The Stormtroopers are here again! We need to go!"

"Dammit!" Lak cursed as he also proceeded to ready his blasters, then looked back at the father. "Hey, do you got a back door of this place? If we go out there they'll see us in a heartbeat." he stated.

"Yes, we do! Follow us!" the father said.

The rest of the family proceeded to gather their belongings and hurry with the father and the three fugitives out through the back door of their home. Varec closed the door behind them just as the Stormtroopers proceeded to kick in the front and head inside, but once they saw it was empty they walked back out onto the street and continued their search, unaware that the very men they looked for had just escaped from their grip...

* * *

Rafik and Kavra were still pinned down with T9 behind the speeder, and the special forces soldiers were not letting up at all. They had managed to take down a few more Imperials, but they were sure reinforcements would arrive soon. They had to think of something fast...

"They're sure taking their time..." Kavra commented, referring to the other fugitives.

"They'll be here soon, hopefully..."

"These Imperials are gonna move up soon... any ideas?"

Rafik kept a tight grip on his blaster as he glanced around the side of the speeder, seeing there was still plenty of Imperial Special Forces personnel out there. He noticed a few cliffs in the distance, but what could he do with that information? They'd get gunned down in a heartbeat if they ran for it. He saw dozens of blasters laying near overturned crates, but again... what was the use for them if they were pinned down? T9 also wouldn't get very far if he sent him to get some, and he wouldn't dare risk Kavra's life over anything.

Rafik sighed and decided to holster his blaster, leaning his back against the speeder as he closed his eyes. He couldn't see many other options but to do something he swore seventeen years ago to never do again in public...

He had to use his Lightsabers. Perhaps even the Force itself...

"Kavra... I need you to trust me with this." Rafik simply said.

"What...? What are you talking about?" Kavra asked, going wide eyed as she felt a feeling of concern build within her.

 _"Just trust me..."_

Kavra's eyes widened as she saw Rafik suddenly turn and walk away from the speeder, heading straight towards the Imperial soldiers. That's when she realized exactly what he was planning to do... As Rafik slowly approached them they all aimed and began to fire their blasters on automatic fire, but even with all of that he still managed to avoid and dodge the shots like it was nothing.

When the soldiers realized he was walking towards them their commander signaled for all of the soldiers to stop firing, as he assumed he was preparing to surrender. That's when Rafik reached behind his back and under his robe and soon revealed that he had two twin metal hilts...

He soon extended his arms in front of him and frowned at the soldiers, who in turn went wide eyed with shock when the two hilts suddenly produced yellow and blue blades of plasma, which meant only one thing: Their target was more than just a rebel... their target was a _Jedi Knight!_

"O- Open fire... on that Jedi!" the Imperial commander ordered, his years of training being overtaken by a moment of pure fear.

"I'm waiting." Rafik tauntingly retorted with a frown as he gave a twirl with his Lightsabers before crossing them and standing in a combat stance, preparing himself for a fight.

The Imperial soldiers quickly began to fire on Rafik as much as they could, but Rafik simply closed his eyes and trusted in the Force as he used his Lightsabers to block every shot that approached; even directing some back towards the Imperials and scoring a few hits that took down some of the soldiers. Rafik kept his eyes closed and he slowly began to walk towards the soldiers again as a couple panicked, but even though they fired with all of their might they still were no match for this former Jedi Knight.

Rafik opened his eyes as he approached one of the soldiers and quickly stabbed a Lightsaber blade through his breastplate, and used the other Lightsaber to deflect a blaster shot right back at the Imperial who fired it, killing him instantly. Deciding to seize the opportunity, Kavra quickly ran out from behind the speeder and fired blaster shots at the other Imperials, who quickly lost several men to her guns due to being distracted by Rafik.

"Commander, what the hell do we do?! He won't die! He just _won't die!_ " One panicked soldier exclaimed as he fired at Rafik.

"Stay calm! That is an order, soldier! _Kill this Jedi scum or die trying to!_ " the commander retorted, also feeling a bit unnerved at fighting a Jedi.

Rafik opened his eyes and used the Force to throw his yellow Lightsaber at a soldier who was aiming at Kavra, quickly penetrating the blade through his heart and stopping him from shooting his lover. Kavra noticed this and she ran to grab the Lightsaber from the dead Imperial's smoldering chest, and in a move that impressed Rafik she quickly ran for the Imperial commander and sliced off one of his arms with the blade after he aimed his blaster right at her, then she kicked him towards the ground.

The Imperial commander fell to the ground and screamed as Rafik finished off the last Imperial soldier with his other Lightsaber, finally ending the standoff for good. Kavra grinned as she deactivated the Lightsaber she was holding and then quickly tossed it to Rafik, who caught it in the air and put it back in one of the holsters on his back.

"You okay?" Rafik asked as he kept the blue Lightsaber active for now.

"Yeah, yeah... Nice moves back there." Kavra smiled as she grabbed one of the fallen Imperial's blaster rifles while holstering her blaster pistol.

"I could say the same to you."

"Oh? So the _big bad Jedi_ was checking me out, huh? Did he like anything he saw?"

"You know I saw _plenty_ that I liked, Kavra."

T9 wheeled over to the pair and he gave a beep that sounded a lot like a low groan, signaling his displeasure and annoyance at hearing the flirting that the lovers were doing. That's when the Imperial commander groaned and held his new stump of an arm, quickly getting Rafik and Kavra's attention as well. Kavra quickly ran to him and pulled off his helmet, tossing it away as she pressed her boot against his chest to keep him to the ground.

"How'd you know about the arms deal?" Kavra frowned as she aimed the blaster at the commander's head.

"If I were you, I'd certainly listen to the lady and tell her whatever she wants to know." Rafik advised to the commander as he aimed the tip of his Lightsaber towards his face.

The Imperial commander was very frightened and afraid for his life, so it didn't take much to convince him to say what he knew. He still held onto the stump of his severed arm and shakily looked up at the two fugitives that seemed to tower above him.

"O- Okay..." the Imperial commander gulped. "W- We have a Star Destroyer above the Holy City. F- From there we monitor all ships that come onto the planet, a- and we grew suspicious when one ship didn't land on any of the city landing zones. W- We came to the conclusion that it had to be rebels, and we thought about blowing it out of the sky b- but we wanted to lure more rebels to annihilate." he said, fearfully.

"That didn't work out so well..." Kavra stated under her breath.

"So the personnel on the Star Destroyer are watching the ships and if a ship leaves the city without permission then it'll get shot down?" Rafik guessed.

"P- Precisely!" the commander replied.

Kavra and Rafik exchanged a look for a moment before they finally just decided to pull away. Kavra lowered her blaster and Rafik deactivated his Lightsaber, and the two proceeded to start walking away from the scene.

"You can go! But tell your Imperial friends that they should try harder next time!" Kavra quipped to the commander, not looking back.

The Imperial commander quickly stood up and grabbed his severed arm before he hurriedly and fearfully started running away for his life even though the two fugitives decided to spare him. T9 quickly followed close behind Kavra and Rafik as they walked away from the scene, happy that the ordeal was finally ended.

"Those Imperials should have some speeders around nearby. We should load up and salvage as many weapons as we can before we go." Rafik commented.

"Maybe, but if the Pride comes in with TIE fighters shooting at it then we'll need to make a quick getaway. Loading crates of weapons isn't going to help with that." Kavra stated.

"Valid point... We'll leave the weapons. But we can't just walk into the city now. Those soldiers probably alerted half of the Imperials in this system that we're here."

"Any suggestions?"

"I don't know... T9? Do you have any ideas?"

T9 gave an affirmative beep and activated a holographic map of their immediate area, along with the Holy City. Kavra and Rafik looked at it and saw the trackers for Lak, Braz and Varec, and they could see that they were approaching the landing bay areas for the city in an apparent effort to get to the Eagle's Pride.

"Looks like they're heading for the Pride, just like we asked them to. You think they've ran into any trouble?" Kavra asked.

"Hopefully they won't, but I wouldn't be surprised if Braz started a bar fight or something like that." Rafik shrugged.

The pair heard the sound of rocks being moved, causing the pair to quickly ready their weapons and turn to face whatever caused the noise. Thankfully all they saw was the black onyx protocol droid the other rebel cell had brought earlier, which apparently wanted to come back to the scene for some reason as it accidentally pushed over some rocks, making the noises a few moments ago. The protocol droid raised his arms and frightfully stopped right in his tracks when he saw the two armed rebels in front of him.

"You're still around?" Kavra asked with a feeling of surprise. She was certain the droid would have became scrap metal by now.

The protocol droid kept his arms raised and cautiously backed away due to fright, tripping over the body of one of the Imperial soldiers and accidentally falling straight to the ground, where he exclaimed with surprise and proceeded to try to get up.

"Oh dear! This is terrible! I can't get myself back up!" the droid exclaimed with fright.

Kavra and Rafik exchanged a look as they lowered their weapons, holstering them for now. T9 gave another annoyed groan-like beep before Rafik used the Force to help lift the droid right back up onto his feet, shocking the droid as he backed right into one of the Imperial speeders.

"A Jedi Knight?! Oh, thank the Maker! I'm saved!" the droid exclaimed, very happy and very relieved.

"You okay? Seems like you were in a tough spot... What's your name?" Rafik stated as he crossed his arms.

"Oh, certainly sir! And I am an RA-7 model, one of Arakyd Industries finest. My unit designation is R-4C7, but the Maker always called me 'C7' for short." the droid cheerfully said.

"I'm Rafik and this is Kavra." Rafik introduced as he gestured towards Kavra, then gestured towards T9. "And this is our droid, T9-E2." he added.

T9 gave a series of beeps as he curiously approached the droid, who in turn glanced back at the R3 unit that was looking at him. C7 gave a small wave before he turned to look back at Kavra and Rafik.

"Certainly he must be a very capable droid for his Masters, sir." C7 complimented.

At hearing that, T9 gave a beep that sounded very angry as if he couldn't believe this droid said that Rafik and Kavra were his 'Masters'. C7 curiously glanced at the droid as Kavra and Rafik awkwardly started to back a short distance away, hoping a fight between these two droids wouldn't break out... T9 gave a long and loud series of incredibly vulgar and very insulting beeps and other noises that signaled his displeasure, causing C7 to gasp.

"How rude!" C7 exclaimed. "Master Rafik, Master Kavra, your droid certainly seems like he needs a diagnostic exam!" he commented.

"Sometimes it seems like it..." Kavra quietly muttered to herself.

With a series of annoyed beeps, T9 wheeled himself away from the group out of annoyance. Rafik pinched the bridge of his nose out of annoyance before he sighed and turned to look back at C7, as they needed to figure out exactly what to do with this rebel droid.

"You got anywhere you can go?" Rafik asked.

"Certainly, Master Rafik! I have information of a further twenty-two known rebel cells scattered across the Outer Rim, Onderon, Corellia and Lothal just to name examples. If I could be taken to any of those rebel cells to assist in their operations then I would be very grateful." C7 replied.

"Alright, fair enough... I suppose you can come with us for now." Kavra replied with a nod.

"Thank you, Master Kavra." C7 cheerfully replied.

Kavra and Rafik took a glance at each other out of the corner of their eyes, wondering exactly what they were going to do with this droid... They hadn't a clue yet. There was room on the ship for a second droid, but hopefully a rebel cell somewhere could take him off of their hands. If he stayed then the two fugitives could predict there would be a LOT of fighting between him and T9... something they would definitely wish to avoid.

* * *

The three fugitives and the family had successfully evaded the Imperial patrols and made it to one of the side entrances of the landing bay, which was situated in a back alleyway a bit far from the main streets of Jedha. No one was going to find them unless they actively looked in that specific spot, but the fugitives managed to stun the two Imperial Stormtroopers that were guarding the door and quickly hid them inside of a dumpster, thankfully not raising any alarms.

Braz and Varec kept watch with their blasters as the group patiently waited for the father to type in the entrance codes to the door, but when they saw it was taking a long time the three fugitives began to become increasingly annoyed and worried that they could get caught by the Empire.

"What's taking so long?" Varec frowned.

"I- I don't know!" the father exclaimed as he kept trying to type in the entrance codes. "Dammit! It keeps denying them! They must've changed the codes when they started looking for you!" he said.

"So you're telling us that you can't get us inside?!" Varec asked with anger.

"Easy, Varec! We'll find another way in!" Braz said in an effort to shush him. They couldn't let Varec's loud mouth get them spotted before they even got inside! Unfortunately that effort to quiet him down didn't work and soon the two began getting in an argument.

"Don't tell me to be easy, Braz! You know what I realized? We could've been long gone by now if it wasn't for your little card trick in the cantina!"

"Oh, so now it's my fault?! What about Kavra and Rafik?! We could've saved them by now and we would've been long gone if you answered your communicator!"

"Don't you even think of turning this around on me, Braz!"

"You're damn right I'll turn this around on you, because it's all your fault that we're even in this situation!"

Lak sighed with annoyance as he holstered his twin blasters as both he and the family saw the two smugglers beginning to argue. He reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled a small explosive charge out of it, quietly placing it on the door as Braz and Varec were too busy arguing to even notice this. Lak ushered the family a short and safe distance away from the now explosive-ridden door and silently pulled a small detonator out of another pouch on his belt, still watching as Braz and Varec still kept arguing in front of them.

Without warning the other fugitives, Lak pressed the button on the detonator, causing the explosive to detonate and the door to be completely demolished. Varec and Braz were thrown by the force of the explosion and they landed in a garbage pile that was a short distance away. A very smelly and dirty garbage pile full of who knew what from who knew where... Lak put away his detonator as he walked over to the now garbage-covered fugitives, crossing his arms as he gave a small smirk.

"Hey, so we got the door open." Lak pointed out with a grin. "You gonna just lay around all day or are we gonna get back to our ship?"

Braz and Varec grumbled to themselves with annoyance as they climbed out of the garbage pile, brushing the garbage off of them as they did so. The two knew they were each going to need at least one or two showers after that episode... or several.

* * *

After making it through the door, the fugitives and the family evaded Imperial patrols as they snuck through the landing bay, and soon they saw the Eagle's Pride sitting on its landing spot in the distance. There were already Stormtroopers guarding the ship and some Imperial engineers examining and searching the ship, and there was several other Stormtroopers patrolling the area around the ship. The three fugitives readied their blasters for a fight as Lak turned to look back at the family.

"Stay in cover and move only when we tell you to. Clear?" Lak asked.

The family all quietly nodded and prepared themselves for what was to come. Varec and Braz moved to separate piles of crates closer to the ship and got into position, with Lak staying back so as to help escort the family. They all realized that there was no way they could get any closer to the ship silently as there were far too many open spaces to sneak effectively, and that coupled with the numerous amount of Stormtroopers meant that now was the time to go loud and fight their way to the Eagle's Pride.

Varec and Braz gave a nod to each other before the pair stood up and began firing right at the Stormtroopers in front of the Eagle's Pride in an ambush, soon causing the base to go on alert and causing much more Stormtroopers to be ordered to run to the position and join the fight. Lak fired at and took down a pair of Stormtroopers that began to get too close as he hurriedly escorted the family towards the Eagle's Pride, stopping to take cover behind crates a few times. That's when Lak heard a scream of pain and turned to see Braz laying on the ground, clutching his shoulder after being hit by an Imperial blaster.

"BRAZ!" He heard Varec exclaim with worry for his friend.

"Dammit!" Lak exclaimed as he readied his blasters and hurried to try and help his friend. The family stayed behind in cover as Lak fired at the Stormtroopers and covered Varec as he proceeded to give first aid to Braz, and when a Stormtrooper got close to the family and aimed he was taken down by Lak. The father went wide eyed as he noticed more Stormtroopers were closing in, and that it appeared that the entire group including his family were about to be overrun. If that happened then perhaps they'd be captured and tortured, if not outright killed... He took a deep breath and gathered his courage, and that's when he did something absolutely extraordinary.

The father ran to the fallen Stormtrooper's blaster and quickly picked it up from the ground, then he began to fire at the other Stormtroopers as much as he could. Lak, Braz and Varec were all shocked to see this act of bravery, which only intensified as the father soon was fired upon by dozens of enemy Stormtroopers.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Varec demanded to know.

"Get inside your ship! GO! I'll be fine, just get my family out of here and don't worry about me!" the father exclaimed as he kept drawing the Stormtroopers fire away from the others.

 _"Father!"_ one of the children exclaimed with horror as she realized her father was sacrificing himself.

Lak quickly ran to the family and quickly began ushering them towards the Eagle's Pride as Varec helped bring Braz inside and to the cockpit, as he still needed a co-pilot. The mother tearfully pulled her children inside as Lak took one last look at the father, seeing that he was still bravely holding off the Stormtroopers as best as he could. Unfortunately just a moment later he took a blaster shot right to the arm that caused him to stumble for a moment, but he still kept firing the blaster with one of his hands and he took down a few more Stormtroopers before four more shots hit him right in the chest, killing him instantly.

Lak then quickly and reluctantly ran into the Eagle's Pride before the door closed up, and he quickly ran to the cockpit to see Varec and Braz hurriedly began prepping the ship for takeoff. Braz cringed and held onto his wounded shoulder as he kept prepping the ship for takeoff, drawing a look of concern from Varec and Lak before Braz flashed a small grin, although still in a considerable amount of pain.

"I'll be fine, don't worry..." Braz commented to the pair.

"Alright..." Varec nodded before turning his attention to Lak. "Get to one of the turrets, Lak! We're gonna be crawling with Imperial fighters when we pick up the others! We need to be in and out of there in seconds!" Varec exclaimed as he flipped a few switches on the cockpit's console.

Outside of the ship the groups of Stormtroopers ran close to the Eagle's Pride and began to fire upon the ship, with a few of the Stormtroopers even setting up manual turrets to support in the attack. Lak ran to a ladder and climbed down and sat himself in one of the turrets as the family took shelter in the cargo bay, and soon the engines of the Eagle's Pride were active and the ship began to get in the air. The Stormtroopers fired at the ship until it blasted its way off of the landing pad, but as soon as they got into the sky the crew could see several TIE fighters had been called in and were now on the way for an attack run on the Eagle's Pride. Lak frowned and put on a communications headset and readied his turret for combat.

"TIE fighters incoming!" Lak announced.

"Just hold them off until we get the others! Then you'll have some backup!" Varec replied.

"I'll contact Kavra and let her know we're coming, but even then we're still going to need to worry about that Star Destroyer above the city!" Braz informed as the sensors on the ship counted ten TIE fighters chasing after them.

"One step at a time, Braz! One step at a time..." Varec replied as he began to prep the hyperdrive, knowing that they were going to need to get the hell out of there once they picked up the others.

Lak began to fire at the chasing TIE fighters as the Eagle's Pride flew out of the Holy City of Jedha as fast as Varec and Braz could make it. The TIE fighters were hot on their tail and Lak fired at the Imperials as accurately as he could, but there was far too many and he was only one old Clone with a single turret.

One TIE fighter was shot down by Lak and crashed in the desert as the others fired at the Eagle's Pride, with one scoring a good hit right on the one of the laser cannons of the ship. The shields protected it, but the impact was enough to jostle everyone inside the ship. The Star Destroyer above the city also began firing at the ship, but Varec managed to dodge all of the laser fire from the behemoth as he checked the specs on the Eagle's Pride, seeing that the ship took a little damage from the TIE fighter's shot.

"Dammit, Lak! We can't take much more of that!" Braz said as he examined the readings on the ship's shields.

"There's too many fighters!" Lak retorted.

"Just keep them away for a little longer! We're almost there!" Varec replied.

Just after Varec said that, a TIE fighter swept in for an attack run and opened fire on the Eagle's Pride, successfully damaging the ship's antenna and causing the people inside to be jostled once more. Lak fired back at the attacking TIE fighters and he successfully hit one on it's left solar panel, sending the craft tumbling straight into another TIE fighter before both exploded in the air.

"I'm going high! Hang on!" Varec said.

Lak was jostled in his seat as the Eagle's Pride suddenly jolted and sped straight towards the sky with the remaining TIE fighters still hot on their tail. The family was thankfully buckled into their seats and holding each other tight as Varec flew the spacecraft high into the air, then doing a loop that sent the ship so close to the ground that he himself actually began to sweat from worry. Lak then proceeded to shoot down another TIE fighter as the Eagle's Pride hurried to get to Kavra, Rafik and T9...

* * *

Rafik was wide eyed as he could see the Eagle's Pride beginning to approach from afar, with several TIE fighters firing at it during the chase. He pulled his Lightsabers back out from his robe and ignited them as he knew he was going to have to deflect laser fire as they tried to get to the ship.

"Varec, you brought friends!" Kavra stated on her comm.

"What can I say? I love to make an entrance!" Varec sarcastically quipped back to her.

One TIE fighter noticed the group on the ground and began to make an attack run, firing its laser cannons at everyone below. Kavra dived for cover and T9 went with her, but C7 ran over to Rafik as the Jedi began trying to deflect a few shots back at the TIE.

"Master Rafik! It appears we are under attack!" C7 reported.

"Are you seriously believing that I need to be notified of that?!" Rafik asked, completely dumbfounded and in disbelief at the fact that the droid had to report this to him even though it was more than obvious.

"But sir! The odds of successfully escaping an attack such as this are-"

Suddenly a blast from the TIE fighter hit the ground right in front of them, sending the Jedi and the droid flying back. Kavra began firing at the TIE fighter as it came back around as Rafik groggily sat up from where he landed, noticing that C7 was laying nearby and that one of his arms was blown off.

"Oh! Oh, my arm! Maker protect me, my arm is gone!" C7 exclaimed with panic as he saw his severed arm and all of the bits of circuitry laying everywhere.

Rafik managed to get himself up off the ground, and although he was wounded by the blast he found the strength to walk a few paces ahead and pick up his Lightsabers, placing them back under his robe. The TIE fighter that made the attack run earlier was now approaching again, preparing to fire as Rafik looked straight up at it. He then raised his arm and reached out with the Force, grabbing the TIE fighter and making it freeze in the air after a few moments. Kavra noticed this and she began firing at the TIE fighter and managed to get a shot through the front window, killing the unfortunate pilot inside.

The Eagle's Pride came in for a landing a short distance away as Rafik pushed the TIE fighter straight into another two TIEs that were fast approaching to fire on their starship. They were completely destroyed thanks to that act, and their mangled remains crashed a short distance away. The Eagle's Pride soon had its cargo bay doors open and Lak gave everyone covering fire against another pair of TIE fighters as T9 hurried straight towards the ship, with Rafik and Kavra hurrying to get C7 on his feet and moving.

"C'mon, get in here! Those TIE fighters are gonna be a problem in a few minutes!" Braz said to the others outside.

"We're coming, we're coming! The droids are slow!" Kavra replied with a roll of her eyes.

Rafik used the Force to pull C7's severed arm into his hand as he and Kavra brought the droid to the cargo bay ramp, with T7 hurrying inside of the ship to do some interim repairs on some of the parts of the ship. The cargo bay door closed as Kavra and Rafik set the protocol droid down on an open spot on the floor and assured him that they'd be back for him before the pair hurried to the other two gun turrets as Varec blasted the ship straight towards the sky, trying to evade more TIE fighters that were starting to approach.

"That Star Destroyer's got nothing on the Eagle's Pride!" Braz cockily said.

"Yeah, but those TIE fighters might! Stay sharp!" Varec replied as the ship began to pass through Jedha's atmosphere. The TIE fighters proceeded to attack the starship as it finally made it off of Jedha and into space, but much to the shock of the crew they could see the Imperials were already waiting for them... Two Imperial Star Destroyers were approaching from afar, and the pilots could already see many more TIE fighters were coming in for an approach.

Varec frowned and he pushed the Eagle's Pride to go as fast as she could, charging straight towards the Star Destroyers. He was damn sure that no one was going to put him in captivity, and no one at all was going to take his ship away from him...

"Hey, so I'm really sorry to ask and I hope it's not rude of me to do so, but did I miss the part where you decided to _charge at two Star Destroyers like a kriffing madman, Varec?!_ " Kavra asked with shock and a lot of sarcasm.

"If I go in any other direction then those TIE fighters are bound to tear us to shreds! If I go straight at the Star Destroyers then maybe I can maneuver through their blaster fire and get on the other side!" Varec explained. "Braz, prep that hyperdrive! We're gonna need it in a few minutes!" he said to his co-pilot.

"On it right now!" Braz replied as he messed with a console next to him, beginning to ready the hyperdrive.

The three gunners fired at the TIEs and worked as hard as they could to protect their ship as Varec flew straight towards the Star Destroyers. The many turrets on the Star Destroyer began to fire upon the Pride, but Varec flew dangerously close and skimmed the surface of one so the turrets wouldn't be able to hit it. The TIE fighters kept attacking however, but the smuggler ship was fast enough to avoid the shots.

"Watch it, Varec! One hit from those Destroyers and we'll be blasted across this entire system!" Lak exclaimed.

"I heard ya, _I heard ya!_ Sheesh, you sound like my mother by this point!" Varec responded with a hint of annoyance.

The Eagle's Pride flew across the surface of the Star Destroyer while under heavy fire from the TIEs, although Lak, Kavra and Rafik were succeeding in shooting some of the pursuers down. Varec approached the bridge of the Imperial ship and jerked back on the steering mechanism, sending the ship straight up and over the bridge of the Star Destroyer, successfully evading their cannon fire. He then leveled the ship and successfully got on the other side of these attackers. Now they had clear space for a few seconds, which was more than enough time for them to finally escape Jedha.

"Hyperdrive is ready!" Braz announced.

Varec nodded in confirmation as he pressed a few buttons on his console and then gripped a lever nearby, slowly pushing it forward and activating the hyperdrive. The all-too-familiar sight of the stars stretching out appeared on their front windows, and just as the TIE fighters caught up to them to try and shoot the Eagle's Pride had already made a getaway. The fugitives, the family and the droids were finally safe...

However, what they didn't know was that there was a distant third Star Destroyer, with one person on the bridge watching the scene with a large feeling of interest. A figure wearing robes and a black hood stood with his arms crossed as he looked out of the windows of the bridge, watching as the Eagle's Pride as it finally went into hyperspace.

His interest in the ship and its crew was definitely peaked. After all, it took skill to evade two Star Destroyers and countless Imperial fighters. He would certainly do some research on the ship and try to find the identities of its crew...


End file.
